Is Public Education Worth Saving?

Abstract

The author writes about the teachers that inspired her, including her parents, reviews the birth of public education in America, the state of public education today, and how it has been affected by political reforms, the economy, the pandemic. She writes “I hope that my SIP represents a snapshot of a young aspiring teacher’s ponderances about, reflections on, and faith in public schools in the United States. I hope to instill in some of my readers a genuine reckoning of the attempt to dismantle public schools and its consequences. I hope that my invitation to answer “is public education worth saving?” is clear, and that somehow I provide my readers with that conclusion. I hope to have imbued on my readers how very much teaching and education mean to me—and to the nation. I will make it explicitly clear that public education is far from perfect; it is flawed and damaged in many ways, and yet it has not crumbled. Why? Because we need it. I hope by the end of my SIP, my readers will understand the importance of public education in the lives of America’s students.”