Dr. Dawn Baldwin Gibson | Executive Director, Peletah Ministries
Parents in North Carolina have been empowered with opportunities for selecting their child’s education. However, many parents are not aware of these educational options that are available or even how to access those options. Those choices include Public School, Public Charter School, Private School, and Home School. We will look at these options and share resources (like the website above) for accessing these various educational choices.
Parental school choice certainly represents a powerful concept. It is critical that parents understand the choices about which school setting best meets their child’s needs, regardless of zip code or income. Socio-economics should not be barriers for parents to access the best educational opportunities for their child.
As discussed in the first column, Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina is a great resource for families. On their website, they share the following: “Parents might decide that a traditional public school, a public charter school, a private school, or even a home school is the best educational environment for their child. But the bottom line is that they, not someone else, get to make this choice.”
There are many reasons why parents make decisions concerning school choices for their child(ren).
Here’s a look at the current K-12 landscape in North Carolina: Nearly 1.4 million students enrolled in public schools // Over 127, 000 students enrolled in public charter schools // More than 103,000 students enrolled in private schools // More than 150,000 students in home-schools.
As parents, my husband and I have made these decisions for our children. Both of our children have attended public schools, and both were also home schooled. Our daughter attended the private school our church started in 2017. We have made these decisions based on what we deemed was best at different times for our children.
Those choices served their individual educational endeavors well as our son is now completing his master’s degree in education and serves as the principal at our private school and our daughter is gaining valuable work experience during her gap year after graduating with honors from our high school.
There can be no doubt that parents are empowered by these options for determining what is best for their child. However, many times, parents may not know where to start. I urge you to visit a website called ‘NC Schools Around Me,’ which allows parents to explore schooling options within a 10-mile radius of their home. Please, please visit: www.ncschoolsaroundme.com
