Public school crisis: Why parents and teachers must seek alternatives

It’s that time of year again when you hear about back-to-school drives and stores replete with school supplies for the millions of American children returning to school. We also hear about teachers and students fleeing government schools in record numbers saving themselves by abandoning a sinking ship.

USA Today reported there are 55,000 vacant teaching positions in America and fewer than one in five people would recommend a young person enter the teaching profession.

What should school districts do to cope? United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) recommends they manage the decline gracefully. They could attempt to remove woke ideology, but passionately woke teachers will not give up easily, already demonstrating a willingness to break laws. They could attempt to return to tried-and-true teaching methods like explicit phonics and traditional mathematics, but this would require significant investment in professional development. They could reduce spending and return unused funds to the taxpayers, trimming expenses as enrollment declines, but this would require an admission of failure.

Shamefully, as government school enrollment decreases spending continues to increase. There are one million fewer students enrolled in government schools, but where is the reduction in spending? Increasing spending for a failed system hurts all taxpayers but is especially a slap in the face to parents who choose to fund their own children’s education via independent and home schools. Legislators must strictly align funding on a per-pupil basis in line with some benchmarks like average tuition rates for local private pay schools, reducing spending commensurate with enrollment and lowering taxes as a result. States should require a funding mechanism that funds students not systems. Lower enrollment should mean lower school district budgets. Taxpayers should demand it.

Moreover, students are not learning to read, write, do math or even think. Teachers are not prepared well to teach and are suffering from fatigue, frustration and a staffing structure that advantages administrators over the classroom. Both students and teachers are falling into a depression caused by woke ideology. 

Non-woke teachers should seek out new opportunities in non-woke private and home schools. Due to the high demand for government school alternatives, teachers can choose to be employed by many emerging education systems like micro-schools, one-room school houses, virtual schools, enrichment programs, studio teachers and the list goes on. These alternative education systems can thrive and grow to the benefit of children, teachers and our country.

Because government schools have become toxic, USPIE continues to advise parents to pull their kids out.

In a recent conversation with a parent of a new five-year-old student, a dad was explaining how he plans to have conversations with his son every day to make sure he’s learning the “right stuff.”

The conundrum is, what do you do when your son tells you the teacher said he could be a girl if he wants? If you answer truthfully and tell your son that is a lie, well, now your son thinks the teacher is a liar. What else might the teacher lie about?  

If you suggest the teacher has a different opinion than you do, you are reinforcing the idea that a child’s sex is an opinion!  

If you say nothing, the next event may be when your son comes home and says he wants to become a girl and tells you, “The teacher said you have to let me, or they will let me go live with someone else.”

Or worse yet, the teacher tells your son to keep it a secret from the family and describes how to transition at school.

Parents’ first, and most important responsibility, is to protect their children. Government schools have become dangerous places. Obviously, loving parents should not send their children to a dangerous place.

Our country’s freedom also hangs in the balance as children in government schools are taught Cultural Marxism, anti-American propaganda and to hate themselves, one another and their country. America is likely the only country in the world that doesn’t teach their children to love their country. On the contrary, they are taught that America is systemically racist, and people groups are pitted against one another blaming White, heterosexual, Christian males for the oppression of people who are Black and Brown, LGBT and of “minority religions.” If we don’t stop the indoctrination of children in government schools, we could lose what is left of our country’s freedoms.

USPIE celebrates the decline in students and teachers participating in a failing system. Until government schools improve dramatically, it is our mission to open more eyes and help parents and teachers see they have choices.