I have always been a public institutions advocate. I share the concern of so many with the nomination of billionaire Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. I would prefer that this position be filled by someone with direct experiences in the processes of education and not an advocate for a narrow educational issue (private schools). Still, I believe the public institutions should accept some responsibility for questioning the productivity and vision of public sch0ols.
Public education and probably all main stream institutions tend to hang on to how things have always been done. Such institutions attract those comfortable with existing practices and find ways to justify existing ways of doing things. I believe that things do change and new ideas worthy of exploration come into prominence. I think the advance of technology represents an example enabling well-researched classroom tactics that have previously been impractical. I think we are at a point in time in which the individual learner needs to receive more individual opportunities and technology can provide one way to provide such experiences.
The effectiveness of many important ideas need to be evaluated in practice. I fault public education for not providing the natural laboratory necessary to evaluate potentially productive practices. Whatever the motives behind the promotion of charter school options (I recognize that charter school can mean many different things), the lack of exploration that exists in public school settings has created this opening.