Next mayor should prioritize children, parents during education-funding battles

In an essay for NewsWorks, the executive director of an independent charitable organization providing Catholic-education tuition assistance to students across the five-county Philadelphia region explored the “How will the next mayor of Philadelphia fix education?” question.

“I’d like to offer some considerations for the next mayor before the education budget goes through its tug-of-war for funding: Keep children and their parents as the priority,” wrote Bill O’Brien of Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools. “There is not a cookie-cutter model for educating a child. There are good public schools, good charter schools, good Catholic schools and good private schools — all of which need to be supported in some capacity.”

O’Brien continued:

Our mayor needs to understand that education of our city’s children is about more than just fixing a single system. It’s about working together to understand the diversities of today’s educational landscape and finding ways to keep all systems working in alignment. Hopefully, today’s students will not have to make the same difficult choices again when their children are preparing to attend K-12 schools in the region.

In the 21st century, we must accept that there are alternative ways of educating a child. Parents know their children better than anyone, shouldn’t they decide which system is best for their child?

To read the entire essay, visit NewsWorks’ EssayWorks page.