Is Public Education a Good Investment?

The Houston Independent School District is confronting possible closures and consolidation of urban public schools due to consistent decline in enrollment. HISD officials concluded that declining birth rates, migration to suburban areas, and staff shortages are the reasons that Houston public schools cannot acquire students, ABC 13 stated in a report. They know that students are ready to resume in-person learning, but parents have opted for alternative forms of schooling like charters, private schooling, and homeschooling.

To HISD schools it is a population issue, not an administrative one. They can make public schools competitive, but they need the fiscal support to do so. This will only happen with increased enrollment. However, the enrollment declines being primarily among elementary schools suggest that the issue isn’t retention but rather procuring new students. Why are people not inclined to attend public schools?

There has been a concerted effort to discount public education. Public schools have been the primary site for concerns for safety, health, and quality education despite not being the main reason these problems exist. Students and parents noticed that public schools did not have the power to contain mass shootings, adequately implement COVID protocols, or deter/object bans and revisions on curriculums and opted for alternative forms of schooling that have effectively addressed these concerns.

Concerns regarding	Conservative	Liberal	Public Schools
Mass Shootings	Increased Surveillance (metal detectors, room sweeps, police patrols)	Gun Control (restrictions on types of guns accessible to public & required license for gun ownership)	Shooter Drills
COVID Protocols	Anti-Vaccination Herd Immunity Positive: 4-Day Quarantine	Vaccination Ventilation Masking Social Distancing Positive: Two week quarantine	Masking Vaccination Positive: Excused Absence of 5 days (CDC Guidelines)
Curriculum	Refused Critical Race Theory Banned AP African American Curriculum	Critical Race Theory	N/A
Inclusivity	Repealed Crown Act – Dress Code Banned Gender Neutral Bathrooms	Gender Inclusive Language & Awareness	N/A

This polarization and inaction made public schools easily positioned as a place that all Texans were in disagreement with. It made it seem as if these concerns and problems were inherent to public schooling rather than a product of low funding and government stalemates: free education is bad and unsafe.

Now, people are opting for education that can be more easily influenced and dictated by state government. Currently, public education is fighting to improve education quality so that kids are more likely to pursue higher education instead of acquiring a labor intensive or blue-collar job. However, the devaluation of public schools makes it easier for disproportionate distribution of funds to charter schools or select public institutions. All on behalf of enrollment and test scores – money.

As aforementioned, parents notice these differences and attempt to give their children the best foundation for their futures, so they enroll into these high-ranked public schools or utilize alternative forms of schooling. But it’s important to invest in public education so that kids do not receive a lower quality education because money and resources are being funneled elsewhere or hoarded in specific areas.

Another big concern that one should have in regards to diverse counties like Houston is greater pressure to conform and assimilate. If people know that private education is the only viable option for safe and quality education, their strict standards can go unchallenged.

We recently appealed the Crown Act and banned the courses like Critical Race Theory and AP African American Studies. Black students might not be outrightly unwelcome but aspects of their culture and identity could be erased or sanitized in order to acquire an education.

Lastly, politicians have wielded the fear and grief of school shootings to divert the attention away from gun control and towards a more surveilled state. Instead of limited access to weapons or decreasing the presence of military grade weapons in the public sphere, they have endorsed campaigns for greater police presence and expanded budget for metal detectors, frequent room sweeps, special locks, and unrestricted monitoring of schools.

Houston is not naïve to the inadequacies of the police or implied risk and harm that this increased surveillance would dipropionate impose on students of color. Ultimately, privatized schooling will be safer, but only for a select portion of the population and relegated the rest of the population to have to conform to their rules and regulation without protest or revision because the other option is the dangerous gamble of attending public school.

The reality is: students are going to continue to attend public schools as it is the most accessible means of education. Not everyone is going to have the money or time to invest in alternative forms of schooling, but even those with this ability should reconsider privatized education.

Public schooling ensures that education is a right, not a privilege. We need to coordinate funds to increase teacher’s salaries, improve curriculums, and implement more attuned resources for students so that public schools are less subject to enrollment and test scores for funding and are competitive academic institutions. It is important to note that the worst declines are at elementary schools. They have managed to significantly increase registration numbers by offering tours of campus and mobilizing enrollment registration.

So, the issue is not their retention, it is getting new students to want to attend. Let’s invest in our public schools – time and numbers – so that public schools have the power to ensure that all students can have access to safe, quality education and we can continue to have a say in our futures. We need public education so that we understand the value of our voice and existence and ensure that we are present and represented in the policy and legislation of our state and in effect, our nation.