Jonathan Paul Loomis
November 9, 1998
Schools and Society
Professor Laughlin
Chapter 12 Review
The most important thing that I learned from this chapter was that schools around the nation have tremendous variety in the way that they are structured and financed. I was impressed to learn about the initiatives Kentucky has taken in reformatting the entire school system statewide. I am also interested in the Massachusetts 2000 initiative that opened up the schools for choice on a statewide scale. However, while these systems interest me, I am also interested, and enjoyed learning about, people who leave the political level of education and actually visit the schools to see what things are really like. The voucher system is interesting to me in that it is a system that I have heard about, but not really ever understood.
I agree with the author that these various systems of school reform are important. However, I do not think that he should have given them the kind of equal treatment that he did. Some systems are far more popular and feasible than others and he did not do a very good job of indicating which systems these were. I also disagreed with him on a few points dealing with the way the American economy impacts schools, but this was mostly due to the fact that the book was published before the Asian crisis and the economically tremendous past few years.
I would like to learn more about the Kentucky system. Has it worked out sense its inception? Have similar systems been implemented in other states? How do these systems compare to the system in Massachusetts and systems like it? How has the federal government gotten involved in the past four years, or hasn't it?