The name of my interest group is Network for Public Education. The interest group was founded by Diane Ravitch and Anthony Cody in 2013. The group was founded with a major goal of preserving, protecting, promoting, and strengthening public schools including the education of future and current generations of students. The group shares research and information concerning vital issues about the future of public education when it is under attack. The group believes that charters and vouchers have a negative impact on public schools. This is because they siphon off students, funding, and resources, and at the same reducing the ability of the public schools to serve the needs and interests of students. The members of the group are citizens, students, teachers and parents that are who are passionate about our schools.
Costs and funding
The major cost associated with the group is the expense incurred during a national conference. The group supports up to 209 public schools. For example in 2014, the group spent 72 million dollars in supporting public schools. Also, the group pays salaries to its leaders and employees. The sources of funding for the group include members’ registration fees, grants from government, donations, and fundraisings.
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Social affairs and services offered
The group thrives to improve the quality of education for students at public schools by ensuring that the public schools continue to operate profitably in order to ensure sound education is provided to all students in the country. The service offered by the group include the provision of information concerning what works and what doesn’t work when implemented in public education. The group has a full-time staff who are located in every state of the country. The group achieves its goal through networking of organizations and groups that are having the same goal in the districts and states throughout the country. The group is willing to break the law in order to ensure that the neighborhood public schools are protected from school voucher and charter schools and create equal opportunities for all students.
Group’s success
The group has managed to support 209 schools in the country by providing them with financial resources that they need in serving their students. The group has 50,000 members and the number is expected to increase to 100,000 over the next two years and the group is receiving support from other institutions and the media. The group has a huge influence on the government in that most of its members have become a school, district, state, district, and union leaders.
Criticisms of this group
According to Barrows, Cheng, and West (2017), charters and vouchers do not hurt public schools. This is because the parents prefer charter schools as they are provided with extensive communication with the school. This will help them monitor the performance of their children leading to high performance (Barrows, Cheng, & West, 2017) . Fiske and Ladd (2017) have also criticized the group by claiming that the charter schools provide students with choice. According to them, the efforts that promote self-governance and choice in schools have shown some benefits for students and their families, although they have had some consequences for the public as a whole. Opposite interest groups are claiming that charter schools were developed to promote innovations and improve learning just like public schools (Fiske & Ladd, 2017) .
Conclusion
What I have learned from doing this project is that the introduction of charter schools is hurting private schools. This is because Charter schools are stealing students from the private schools making them less profitable. Therefore, the private schools will be unable to pay the salaries of qualified teachers and their operating expenses. This affects the quality of education provided at the public schools.
References;
Barrows, S., Cheng, A. P., & West, M. R. (2017). Parental Perceptions of Charter Schools: Evidence from Two Nationally Representative Surveys of US Parents . Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series , PEPG 17-01. Program on Education Policy and Governance.
Fiske, E. B., & Ladd, H. F. (2017). Self-governing schools, parental choice, and the need to protect the public interest. Phi Delta Kappan, 99(1) , 31-36.
