Hoosier public schools unclear on the concept:
Struggling Indiana public school districts are buying billboard space, airing radio ads, and even sending principals door to door in an unusual marketing campaign aimed at persuading parents not to move their children to private schools as the nation’s largest voucher program doubles in size.
The promotional efforts are an attempt to prevent the kind of student exodus that administrators have long feared might result from allowing students to attend private schools using public money.
You'v heard of selling the sizzle instead of the steak. The point of the charter school and voucher movements is, A) to give less-well-off students and parents the same school choices always available to the well-off and, B) to encourage public schools to improve in other to keep students they might otherwise lose to competition. Trying to keep those students with a massive ad campaign instead of offering them something different sort of misses the point, doesn't it?
Here's Fort Wayne's version of the Big Sell. I've seen at least two of these "Our Schools Our Choice" signs on my block. It reminds me of the South Side Pride the parents across the street have put up for their high school students. I know it means a lot to them, but it doesn't do much for me.
