Private vs. Public Sector: Education

One of the things we discussed in our groups tonight was how small, grassroots organizations take steps to initiate a new project, like those mentioned in One Nation Indivisible. Oftentimes it’s small organizations or a few people that take an idea and run with it, hoping for the best and praying no one shuts it down. One thing that crossed my mind related to education and the private vs. public spector. Like in the story about the school in Massachusetts, most schools that implement more progressive ideas are typically private or charter schools. They have more freedom to do so (and people pay to go there specifically for those reasons frequently) where public schools are restricted by the local, state, and federal governments. I wonder if some programs are “tried out” in private schools first before being implemented in public schools, like variations of ELL education. If dual immersion is successful, could it ever be implemented in public schools? Similarly, for my Now Wow How project, I wondered about mental health education. While it is gaining popularity (finally!) in public school systems, it’s still ignored in favor of high stakes testing and extreme stress on students. If private schools had success with regular, frequent mental health education, do you think public schools would be more likely to try it since it is less high stakes for them then? Public schools have the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality most of the time, so I have an idea that this is one of the only ways to really start a movement or change in the school systems.