The National School Boards Association, from which we draw a great many leads for our “Name That Verdict” category, has launced a new campaign to defend public schools. Their poster:
Salman Khan’s poster for Stand Up 4 Public Schools (via Facebook)
The Stand Up 4 Public Schools mission:
Well-funded and well-organized critics are undermining public schools and working to eliminate school board governance as we know it. But the conversation is beginning to change – and YOU are part of this shift. In local communities across America, public schools are the ‘great equalizer’ able to empower every child to fulfill his or her potential, regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic circumstance, or religious affiliation. Many Americans today understand the myths of ‘choice’ and are choosing public education.
If you are prepared to stand up for public education, join our 90,000 school board leaders, 13,500 public school districts, 50 million public school children, and more than 100 million public education family members to leverage the power and significance of our collective voice. Supporting access to a world-class public education makes sense for our nation’s future: When you stand up for public schools, you ensure that every child in America – regardless of ZIP code – gains the chance of college and career opportunity.
Joining this nationwide campaign is Salman Khan, the founder of the online Khan Academy, and one of the greatest education innovators to come to the field from a non-educator background. In fairness, he became interested in education as he tutored a relative in elementary math, and his site has now blossomed into the provider of thousands of instructional videos about school subjects, online tests, and practice drills for students of all ages, the Washington Post reports.
Despite Mr Khan’s amazing innovations in the online delivery of math content, he sees his online academy “as an educational tool and expects his own children to attend brick-and-mortar schools for a full education.”
We reported, about a year ago, the unanimous voice of Illinois superintendents of schools in rejecting a proposed virtual charter school in the western suburbs of Chicago. Online-only schools can’t provide a “full” education for students, we argued.
“I think 18 local school boards have spoken very loudly in the fact they are not in support of this virtual charter, and I appreciate the governor’s support of the legislature in putting a halt to that at this time until they have a process and regulations in place around a 100-percent virtual charter,” we quoted Kathy Birkett, superintendent of Indian Prairie School District 204, as saying.
Now, hearing Mr Khan, whose website we have touted as visionary, say essentially the same thing in defending traditional public schools, we couldn’t be happier.
Although the NSBA website still has a few broken links, we congratulate them on this effort and wish them well.
