To the editor:
So many choices in our daily life, except for our children’s primary education.
Every week when I go to the grocery store, I’m thankful for the seemingly-unlimited choices presented in every aisle. From coffee to soup, deodorant to toothpaste, peanut butter to garbage bags, a half-hour at the grocery store represents just a small fraction of the choices in our daily life.
Why, then, do we accept a one-size-fits-all, zip code-based system to educate our children?
It’s ludicrous to imagine a scenario where families are allowed to buy items from only a single brand at the grocery store, or forced to wear only one specific brand of clothing or drive only a certain brand of car based on their zip code, but this is the reality of our public education system.
If our goal is to educate the next generation to the best of our ability, shouldn’t families be able to choose from a whole host of the latest and most innovative opportunities?
New Hampshire’s elected officials owe it to our students to develop an education system that reflects our increasingly-customizable and technology-enhanced lifestyles, not to prop up a one-size-fits-some system that was designed to meet the needs of a bygone era. We owe our children and families the opportunity to choose from a wide range of educational options that best fit their needs right now.
Public charter school expansion allows for more innovative solutions to education, legislators should adopt the federal grant money as soon as possible. With the highest grant award in the country, New Hampshire can blaze a trail for education innovation that will help all students.
Christopher Maidment
Peterborough