RALEIGH -- I often sense an adversarial tone when listening to discussions of the different educational options available to our children. Whether a child attends a traditional public school, a public charter school, private school or is home-schooled, each learning environment enjoys a symbiotic relationship with the other - where one model is actually interdependent upon the other, especially with our public school system.
Imagine if every Wake County private school, public charter school and home school closed its doors today, thus forcing those students to enroll in Wake County traditional public schools. The result, according to numbers from the state Department of Public Instruction, would be an immediate influx of more than 16,000 private school students, 8,000 home-schooled students and 6,200 public charter school students either entering or re-entering a public school system that is already busting at the seams.
On a statewide scale, what if the more than 96,200 private school students, 83,000 home-schooled students and 41,200 public charter school students, totaling more than 220,000 children, enrolled or re-enrolled in North Carolina's traditional public schools?
The result would be not only catastrophic for our students and families but also debilitating for our state-supported public school system. In 2010-11, North Carolina spent an average of $5,162 per student, according to the General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division. Based on average state per-pupil spending, taxpayers would be on the hook for an additional $925 million (which excludes public charter school students) if the more than 220,000 students not attending a traditional public school enrolled.
Such a scenario may be unlikely. However, we must recognize that private, public charter and home schools have a significant working relationship with our public schools in educating our children. It is a model that North Carolina has long embraced and one that should be celebrated.
Last year, lawmakers voted to eliminate the cap on public charter schools and less than a month later approved a private-school measure allowing parents of children with disabilities to claim tax credits for educational expenses. How these historic measures became law demonstrates that supporting the best learning environment for our children is not about which side of the political aisle one inhabits.
Nearly every lawmaker - 97 percent - voted to remove the public charter school cap, and 65 percent of Democrats in both the House and Senate voted for the Tax Credit for Children with Disabilities Act. This measure is the state's first K-12 law allowing private education as an option, one that will benefit thousands of families while saving the state and local school districts millions.
Moreover, these measures highlight the importance that any true partnership, in this case involving our traditional and nontraditional K-12 school models, be mutually beneficial.
We must realize the importance of a strong collaborative relationship among the diverse educational models our state offers. It should benefit not only students, but this symbiotic K-12 relationship should also work for every school through sharing best practices and preventing the overwhelming financial strain from the sheer numbers of children our state must teach.
North Carolina's strong history of educational options should be celebrated, but we still need to work toward ensuring that this partnership is mutually beneficial for each educational model. Each part - including our traditional public schools - helps to support our shared responsibility to fully educate not just some of our children but all of them.
