Public Education Reform

Posted June 01, 2011

Public Education is vital to our children and to the future of our democracy. Over the past 20 years there has been heated debate over the best road to creating a “world class” education for our country’s children. In the mean time there has been an ever-widening achievement gap.

As state and federal governments take steps to reform the education system Promise the Children has joined with voices of reform that are fighting to insure that all children in the US are treated fairly. The stakes are high and there are no easy answers.

We believe that the outcomes cannot be separated from the needs and concerns of the community. Wealth and income will affect the educational opportunity of a community but that is no excuse for failing to provide a basic public education for all.

We believe there should be:

Equitable funding for all public school communities
Teacher, family, and community leadership in formulating educational policies
The use of multiple and varied assessments to evaluate students, teachers, and schools
Educational opportunities that develop every student’s intellectual, creative, and physical potential.
Full public funding of family and community support services.

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“Jails and prisons are the complement of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more must you have of the former.” Horace Mann
(1796-1859. U.S. educator, Unitarian, the first great American advocate of public education.)