Public School Popularity

For John, BLUF:  "School choice has long been a goal of the conservative movement, long before [Christopher] Rufo was born.  But as Gallup’s polling clearly shows, Rufo did not create the public’s distrust in public schools.  Public schools did that on their own.  And the COVID shutdowns only made that crisis of confidence worse."  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Did conservatives discredit public schools, or did public schools discredit themselves?

From The Washington Examiner, by Reporter Conn Carroll, 15 July 2022, 11:49 AM.

Here is the lede plus five:

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo took a victory lap Thursday after New York Magazine corrected a quote in an article attacking Rufo by Jonathan Chait.

“Winning: New York Magazine’s @jonathanchait fabricated a quotation in an attempt to smear me, but I caught him red-handed and his editors had to retract the false statement and issue a correction,” Rufo tweeted. “Very embarrassing for him.”

Chait admitted the quote in his article had to be changed but claimed that the two quotes “said virtually the same thing.”

The fake quote read, “In order to achieve universal school choice, it’s necessary to create an atmosphere of universal public-school distrust.”

The real quote said, “To get universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust.”

These statements may appear to be close in meaning, but they say two very different things. As one of the top comments in Chait’s timeline notes, “One calls for creating mistrust, the other is assuming everyone already mistrusts them.”

The excerpt is a little long, but it allows us to get at the heart of the issue, Citizen mistrust of public schools.  This is a growing problem and school administrators and teacherrs pushing a "Woke" agendsa are not helping.

The COVID-19 Pandemic did not do public schools any favors, in that parents were exposed to some of the teaching their children were receeiving.  And, the long delay in reopening the schools seemed selfish to many parents.

The push for school vouchers (the money following the child, rather than going to the public school automatically) will create more debate, and perhaps more hardening of the lines.

Here in Lowell we appear to be in a good positionm with a School Administrstion does not appear to be overly woke, while still working to meet the needs of a very diverse student popultion.  In addition, our School Committee seems responsive to the needs of the students and the parents.  May it continue that way.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff