If parents had the ultimate choice as to which school their children attend, then the prejudices of the society as far as race are concerned would soon become apparent in the populations of the classrooms. Parents who did not want their children to be in the presence of children of a different race would send their children to schools with a lower population of that race.
As a demonstration a hypothetical area with a high level of racial tension between three groups of people, eastern Europeans, Asians, and white English and three local primary schools it can be imagined that quite quickly it could become a problem within the school populations as well. If parents do not have the ultimate say in which school their child attends, the populations of the school would reflect the populations of that school’s catchment area. However, if the parents could decide which school they were sending their child to, groups of parents from the same ethnic backgrounds would probably send their children to the same schools. Those schools would develop an increased population of one ethnic background, and parents of different ethnicity would be reluctant to send their children to that school and so choose another one. School would no longer be a forum for the children to express their interests in people from different backgrounds, they would lose their experiences of this, and there would be little basis for the children to develop and investigate ideals different from their prejudiced parents.
The publishing of school league tables would also cause problems within the school environment should parents be able to choose which school their child attends. Parents who show a keen interest in the educational development of their children naturally want their children to go to the best school in the area. The league tables provide some kind of guideline for those parents to choose which school to send their children. Children who have a keen parental support are generally given additional help at home away from school with their work, they would have been encouraged to read from an earlier age at home, their mental abilities could therefore be more acute, and they would therefore do generally better at school. Keen parental influences on those children would often suggest that these children would be better behaved. The truancy levels would be lower as the children would be aware that school is important, their attention in class would be better, and their discipline in the classroom would be more improved. This all leads to a better level of results and education for the children and also for the schools, which would then be elevated in the league tables and the cycle would continue.
On the other hand, parents who do not show a keen interest in the educational development of their children, who have little say in their children’s discipline, and who do not care which school they attend, would end up having their children going to schools which are lower on the league tables. These children would be thrust into an environment with children on similar levels of education and with other behavioural issues, their home life may not be necessarily a positive influence on their growing up and a group of children in this situation would become the main population of that school. The school would then have an increased problem with truancy and discipline issues, this would reflect in the results achieved by their students, and the schools would drop lower in the league tables. So you would then have a further divide between schools in the same area, schools populated with children from stable loving backgrounds that are supported and encouraged throughout their school life, and schools populated with children without that encouragement and support.
Problems would quickly arise from parents being able to choose explicitly which schools their children are to attend. Schools would develop populations that do not reflect the environment in which the children are growing up in outside of school. Problems with bullying issues would arise, between people of different backgrounds and religions. Children of one cultural background may become ostracized and victimised in schools with unusually high populations of another cultural background. Schools may become over populated in general as more parents would want to send their children to one school over another, over subscribed schools would not be able to accept further children and they may be required to attend schools which have an unnaturally high population of a different race of children. The social problems associated with the external environment would become reflected in the school populations and education would lose its ability to teach children and encourage children to learn and share experiences with persons of a different background. Children would lose opportunities or gain unequal opportunities dependent upon the interest level of their parents. It would lead to chaos.
Yet, it could be argued that is it right that parents do not have the ultimate choice as to where a child attends school. The same problems as identified by that choice especially as far as race is concerned, might be reflected in the natural catchment area population of a specific school. If one estate of people is known as being the homes to many people of one race and so the school has a higher population of people from that race, is it acceptable to expect a family to send their children of another race into that school when they already know and suspect that their child would be a minority in that school and therefore be subjected to bullying? Is it right that an extremely bright child with supportive parents who is intelligent and dedicated to their schoolwork be sent to a school, which is notoriously bad as far as discipline is concerned, and with little in the way of positive achievements? Would that child’s education suffer because they were in attendance at a school that is lower in the league tables than another school in the same area? Would they be dragged down by their peer group and end up in the same kinds of trouble as the children that they associate with during school hours, purely because they are in that school and not another one?
The problems identified as possibilities with parents sending their children to a specific school are generally also identifiable in the populations of the surrounding areas and the areas in which the parents can afford to or choose to live. Schools will always reflect the social problems of the surrounding areas, but, if parents were able to choose which school to send their child to based upon their levels of prejudice and support of their child’s education, then the school no longer has any way of trying to break down the inherent problems in society. It is a cycle of thought processes and prejudice that causes the majority of problems in society today, and unless this is addressed and people are educated then it will remain so. Allowing parents to influence the child’s schooling so far as choosing the school that they attend only fuels the cycle further and removes the tool for educating those children.