The impact of privatization and access to education on schools and teachers

Graphic by Sydney Mulford, Features Editor

Megan Serfontein, Copy Editor, Sydney Mulford, Features Editor & Remi Munye, Staff Writer

American widespread public education first became popular in the 1830s, as it offered poor families a way to educate their children when hiring private tutors or enrolling their children in private schools was too expensive. It allowed for learning to no longer be strictly for the wealthy, but for the public as well. However, in the last five years, education has become progressively privatized due to the negative sentiment surrounding the public education system and an increasingly tense political climate. 

Recently, there has been a movement of growing distrust towards public education by government officials and parents alike, largely stemming from the belief that public school teachers indoctrinate students with their beliefs. As a result, many lawmakers have worked to introduce laws that limit what can be taught inside the classroom as well as ban teachers from discussing certain topics. In this aspect, parents have begun to prefer private and homeschool education as safer alternatives to public schooling due to the authority private and homeschool education allow them to have over their children’s educations. 

In Georgia, those beliefs get addressed in House Bill 1178 also known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights. Which allows for school choice and transparency in public school curriculum. 26 other states have also filed or passed a Parental Bill of Rights in the last two years. Governor Brian Kemp codified the bill into law stating that parents know more than the government. 

This trend of parents exerting authority over their children’s educations is not without reason. As of July 2022, the confidence in the American public education system was at 28%, while 20 years ago, the number was near 50%.

With the politicization of curriculum, private educational institutions seem more appealing to many parents along with the general belief that their child’s education at a private school will be better than at a public school. However, this may not be the case. Many states across the country, including Georgia, do not require private school teachers to have a bachelor's degree or a teaching license. The only teachers required to obtain any type of degree or certification are special education (SPED) teachers. But many private schools have no SPED programs at all since they do not usually receive government funding. Therefore, they can turn away any student from their school for not meeting academic criteria, including those with disabilities. When religious organizations become involved, the rules become even murkier; those schools can claim that taking a student with a disability would be against their religious values.  

“We have students of all abilities, and we're putting them in one spot,” Principal Martin Neuhaus said. “A private school could say, ‘I only want kids to score 1500 on the SAT.’ As a private school, you can pick and choose, and then you can tailor your education to that clientele. Public School, we take everybody and we have to serve everybody.”

To become a public school teacher in Georgia, a person must hold a bachelor’s or master's degree. If their degree is not specifically in education the individual must possess a teaching certificate by completing the Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators (GACE) exam. There is a caveat for individuals to teach without a certification; individuals that have specialized degrees may become teachers in high-need areas without a teaching certificate, but the teacher usually has a master's degree or has been working in the field they will be teaching in for at least five to 10 years. If the area loses its high-need status, non-certified teachers will either be let go or asked to obtain a teaching degree before continuing as teachers. Educators with certifications after teaching for three years may apply for a Professional teaching certificate, and after five years, highly qualified teachers who have received a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification or an advanced degree may apply for the highest level of teaching certificate in Georgia called an Advanced/Professional level certificate. Furthermore, public school SPED teachers have even more training to work through in addition to their general education certifications. Thus, public school teachers are generally more qualified than private school teachers and have achieved higher levels of education despite general public belief. 

Private education also brings with it a lack of diversity. Across the country, the majority of private school students are made up of white students, with a mere 33% of students in private schools being people of color. Consequently, this lack of diversity in private schools fosters prejudice. According to a US News Report article,  students of color in secondary private schools feel unwelcome in their classrooms due to issues with peers and staff when discussing racial topics. 

“Some of the disadvantages are you miss out on different experiences and different kinds of students. There are a lot less people, so I definitely have been able to make a lot more friends here,” Lindsey Brown, a senior who went to private school till she was in ninth grade, said. 

However, the private education sector does boast figures that public schools cannot compete with. The graduation rate among Georgia private schools is more than 90% of students, while at public schools across the state, the number is less than 80%. The average SAT score for public school students in Georgia is 1086, with only 41% of Georgia public high schoolers taking the test. For Georgia private schools, that number was 1197. Much of this comes from the sense of community and personalized learning created at private institutions. In private schools, parents have involvement in every part of the student's education, as well as teachers can spend one-on-one time with students with ease.

“I would say the biggest disadvantage at public school is that teachers don't care about you [the same way they do] in private school,” Brown said. “The [private school] teachers are invested in how you're doing and what you're doing, and you as a person, whereas in public school, you don't get as much of that community.” 

Private schools also have the added advantage of not needing to worry about state standardized testing. Standardized tests play a much larger role in public education. Schools across the nation have seen an increase in standardized tests within classrooms. 

“My students did more standardized testing than has ever been done before and it hasn't changed. It's gotten worse,” Jordan Kohanim, a public school teacher who left education to start working in private tutoring said. “Standardized testing has become the way of education. Standardized testing has taken over true learning and it's no longer about actually learning for kids.”

Kohanim expressed her concern that the role standardized testing plays in education is now heavier than ever before. She fears the large influence for-profit companies have over education and standardized testing. Classes are focused on teaching students test material rather than focusing on learning for sake of learning. Students have become too engrossed in their test scores, negatively impacting the way they learn in class. 

However, Elizabeth Lake, who has been an English teacher for 18 years, has not explicitly seen an increase in standardized tests in her classroom. 

“I'm aware that my perspective is very solely focused on the experience that I have here,” Lake said. “I don't think my actual classroom instruction is any more standardized test based than it was 18 years ago. I don't think any individual teacher who's been teaching as long as I have would tell you, their individual classroom instruction is more standardized test based, but depending upon the school or school system they're in, they might feel more pressure to be standardized test based.”

Lake has also seen the role of for-profit companies in the classroom. It is more common to see businesses selling books, advertising that their book will help students obtain a five on an AP test or that this test review will be the one to get them a perfect score on students’ SAT/ACT. This practice of for-profit businesses interfering in education is often referred to as the educational industrial complex. 

“When I was in school and taking AP classes, there were far fewer different businesses that made their money off of AP tutoring and AP prep books and courses and that sort of thing. There are so many more options [today],” said Lake. “There's so many businesses, private businesses, that tie themselves to making money off of education."

Many private companies have been marketing to students and parents. A swarm of AP tutoring books and SAT/ACT tutors advertise to help students get higher scores. Parents often pay these hourly rates, and as demand increases, so do prices. This makes it nearly impossible for low-income families to afford the services.  Kohanim, like Lake, expressed her disapproval of the changes in private companies' involvement in public education since the beginning of her career. 

“[We should go back to] the way that public education was before we had for-profit companies making millions of dollars off the backs of student data and data mining,” said Kohanim. “I think that we should go back to teachers having creative autonomy. I think that we should have classrooms that are smaller. I think that Georgia needs to actually stand up and fully fund public education as required by their constitution.”

On the other side of the desks, students have felt this change as well. Specifically, Shruti Balamurugan, who is a student and private tutor. After graduating from Northview in 2022, she started tutoring Northview students and other students from Fulton County schools. Initially, she considered tutoring as a mere side job she had, but she gradually began to enjoy helping students learn in a way that is not tailored toward test scores and grades.

“I took AP Chemistry and a couple of weeks ago in my first class, my chemistry professor said,  if you took AP, scrap it because that's not what you actually have to know. You're not learning chemistry to learn chemistry, you're learning chemistry to pass the test,” said Balamurugan.  “That's definitely a flaw in the public education system, especially when teachers get raises and incentives for having better test scores or having better AP scores and that kind of thing.” 

Balamurugan describes how she believes that standardized testing should be in schools, but in their respective measures. 

“I really think that public education should be focused more on the growth aspect. If you start here, we want to get you here, rather than everyone just needs to get an A on the test.” Balamurugan said.

Many students at Northview have also seen the role standardized testing plays in education. Jason Cho, a senior at Northview, hopes the school will become more hands-on instead of focusing on the scores received on tests. 

“I think the future of education [should rely] less heavily on standardized exams,” Cho said. “Instead of trying to quantify students, we [should] be as hands-on as possible.” 

Not only have standardized tests put pressure on students, but they have also put pressure on teachers, resulting in some teachers leaving education altogether. Kohanim was a public education teacher for 16 years but ended up leaving after feeling that the pressure put on by standardized tests in her classroom was too much. Kohanim felt that education had become too focused on standardized testing, and she lost creativity when she taught. Now that she has moved into teaching and tutoring online, she has seen that creativity come back. Her job relies on her teaching in the creative way she wants to. 

“If a student doesn't like what I'm teaching, they don't come to my class and I lose the income,” Kohanim said. “I have to be creative. I have to market myself. I have to make myself interesting. I have to have classes that students want to take and parents want their kids to take.”

Similarly, Balamurugan has seen the stress put on teachers in schools. As such, though she has developed a passion for teaching kids because of her tutoring business, she still refrains from becoming a teacher because of the inherent flaws in the public education system. She knows that teachers do not always get recognition for the work they do. This can include sponsoring clubs, attending out-of-school events, and having to write recommendation letters. 

“Teachers in the public education system are undervalued and underappreciated, they [are] the real heroes,” Balamurugan said. “Until that changes I don't think non-post-secondary education would be for me.” 

Neuhaus has also witnessed the transition of teachers leaving education because they feel undervalued in their profession. He believes that until the public appreciates teachers and their work, there will always be an issue in the public education system. 

“Teachers are realizing they’re worth more, which is a good thing because now we need the public to realize they’re worth more,” Neuhaus said. “[Until then] it’s going to hurt every school. It's going to hurt every system.” 

Neuhaus describes how a teacher with whom he had previously worked left teaching, not because she lost the passion for it, but because she felt the pressure of being an educator was too much. According to Neuhaus, she works in insurance, only three days a week, and makes more money than she did as a teacher. 

“I think teachers are realizing now more than ever, the value of their work and how their ability to engage and help students of all different facets, of all different levels, to learn and grow is very marketable and very well suited for lots of businesses,” Neuhaus said. 

Every teacher has different reasons for leaving public education but it often stems from the same inherent flaws in the public education system. Ranging from poor working conditions to being undervalued in their workplace, these fundamental deficiencies in public education are driving away teachers.  

Furthermore, as public schools become increasingly standardized, education as a whole is being damaged. The privatization of education is reversible, but the changes that need implementation are the deep-rooted systematic issues that are pushing people away from public education.  

“We don't need leaders that don't have compassion. We don't need leaders that don't have any integrity. We don't need leaders that are negative or that can't be responsible for themselves with their actions and the world is full of that,” Neuhaus said. “Those kinds of people are not who we need to be leaders. That's part of what the value of public education is. It's really about the future and how we're going to improve upon all the things that we didn't get right.”