This week we were lucky enough to have Jennifer Dyck-Sprout visit our class. Jennifer has an interesting background when it comes to her career in education. Currently she works for Everfi, but previously has worked in New York and is familiar with the New York School Division.
Although Jennifer came primarily to talk about Everfi (check it out here -http://www.everfi.com) what resinated most with me was the discussion and comparison between Manitoba school and the New York School Division. Jennifer didn't sugar coat the fact that their are major flaws in the education system in New York. She outlined the premise of Charter Schools which are publicly funded like a general public school, except admissions are based on a lottery.
I am torn about the idea of Charter Schools in New York. On one hand it is great to see that students who come from lower income families have the opportunity to receive a quality education and are not excluded because of a cheque book. On the other hand it is sad that public schools in New York have such a dismal graduation rate, and in a sense whether you gain entrance into a Charter School or not is the determining factor of a post secondary education. Hopefully this is a short term solution to the education crisis in the city and next focus will be on improving public schools.
I had never heard of Charter Schools before Jennifer talked about them and I find them to be an interesting concept. I think that having money to try new things and not have to stick to policies that school divisions have would be interesting. But I agree with you that the fact that a student's future education depends on whether they are able to get into one of these schools is a sad and scary fact.
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