9266; Re: 9260: Public & Private Schools (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: E Vedrine <evedrine@hotmail.com>



                Public schools VS Private schools

“If you are a well-educated family your children are better of in public 
schools not private contrarily to the popular beliefs.” (Senou)

- It depends where. There was a time in Haiti “Lycée Petion” the best 
secondary schools in the country and most of the Haitian intellectuals went 
to the “Lycées”, not private schools. But things started changing in the 
late 70’s (when “quality education” in Haiti started going down), but still 
there are some good secondary schools in Haiti; I am sure most of them are 
not public now.

“I support a school voucher for all parents who expressed their desire to 
remove their children from a failing school, but if the voucher is 
distributed to just a few I'm against it.” (Senou)

- But, wouldn’t it be better to analyze why a school is failing? What kind 
of students go to that particular school? Just giving a voucher to some 
students does not solve the real problem; this is a trompe-l’oeuil; it's not 
the best way to eradicate the disease.

“Since local government controls public schools, the people in the community 
should request change to be made prior removing their children. My friends, 
you as parents have the power to do it (U must be a registered voter as 
well). Public schools system is required to follow the state curriculum, how 
they are going to meet that requirement if they don't have the resource.” 
(Senou)

- I pretty much doubt that most minority parents (e.g immigrants from low 
economic background) who are living in urban areas know what’s going on with 
the school curriculum, to what extent it can be advantageous to their 
children (in x/y school) to prepare them to attend college in the near 
future. If we want to take Haitian parents for instance, most of them don’t 
know what’s going on in the system here; they just rely on the teachers; 
most of them don't know the importance of going to open-house, parents' 
meetings, how to check on their kids' progress in school. And the curriculum 
in public schools can vary from one state to another.

“Haitian church in various communities shall provide support to those 
parents who are unable to help their children by doing after school program, 
ask an educated member in their church to assist some parents
during parent conference.” (Senou)

- It depends what type of programs these churches have and funds available 
for that. It could also be done on a voluntary basis, but it depends on how 
a particular church is organized (in terms of some social programs they may 
have). On that note, I would mention the importance of “the Haitian Clubs in 
college” if they really want to do some volunteer works in their communities 
(such as tutoring elementary, high school students by going to their 
schools), be a big brother /sister to some of these students who need help, 
go to these schools to talk to students.

e.w.vedrine

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