I read this article and was not overly impressed with it. It states the views of one person and those views do not conform to mine. After all this is a free country and people who believe that the PS system is letting their kids down can take their kids to private schools if they can afford it.
I don't like PS for precisely the reasons that she states would make it good - I HATE aggressive PTAs that send "hitmen" after you to collect $$$$ for the "dying" PE and enrichment programs. I hate PTA fundraisers where parents need to stand around selling ice cream cones. I hate that parent volunteers fill in for PE teachers, art teachers, class room teaching aides, computer lab teachers, yard duty and lunch supervisors in place of laid off school staff. I hate that a huge part of my child's educational experience is based upon the iffy quality of parent volunteers that my local PS gets and not upon teachers/admins who are qualified and paid by the state to do such jobs. I have done all these volunteer jobs for my child's K classroom, but in the end I believe that a person with more skill than me (and more qualified than me in dealing with kids) could have made the school experience a lot better.
In my opinion, as long as budget cuts are in force and teacher unions are strong and money gets allocated to exhorbitant pension funds and not the actual resources for educating kids, the PS system will struggle no matter how involved the parents might be.
