Parents Want a Choice. That’s Not an Indictment of Traditional Public Schools.

Yesterday’s report that 24% of North Carolina students attend something other than a traditional public school is not an indictment of traditional public schools.

Rather, it reflects the wonderful diversity of North Carolina’s education landscape: private schools, charter schools, and home schools. Does your child act, feel, or learn a certain way? There’s probably a school that best fits that child.

We’ve been told for years to celebrate diversity, that everybody is unique. (It went off the rails a bit when five-year-olds were told about multiple genders, but we’ll ignore that for now.)

If that’s true – if everybody is different, and if that’s something to celebrate – then how can it be that all those vastly different beings will all succeed in the same school, with the same curriculum, the same principal, the same teachers, and the same culture?

It can’t both be true that every child is so vastly different, and that every child will do their very best in one single school environment.

So, yesterday’s news that 76% of North Carolina children are enrolled in a traditional public school – down from 85% a few years ago – should not be viewed as some sort of failure for traditional schools. Instead, it should be seen as parents of diverse children exploring the diversity of education options available to them.

When children find a school that fits them, that’s a good thing.