Q & A
This week’s Q & A’s are in the following areas:
How many Ukrainians live in the United States and where?
Can I change my children to a school outside of my district and is there a cost to do so?
How to get involved in your local school board?
Ukrainians in the United States
1. How many Ukrainians live in the United States and where?
The largest enclave of ethnic Ukrainians in North America live in Canada, but according to a 2019 census estimate, there are more than 1,009,874 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.3% of the American population. It is the second largest number of Ukrainians outside of Russia and Poland. By far, the largest number of Ukrainians in the United States live in the New York City area. A large Ukrainian Museum exists in New York City’s East Village which had been home to New York’s largest ethnic Ukrainian neighborhood. There is also a well known neighborhood called “Little Ukraine, or “Ukrainian Village” in Chicago, Illinois.
Public School outside of ones district
2. Can I change my children to a school outside of my district and is there a cost to do so?
Most states now provide an optional “out of district” school for children. Most parents are unfamiliar with the school “choice” options available to their children. “School choice” once automatically referred to political efforts to get states to pay for any choice a parent might make regarding their children’s education whether parochial, private or public. An increasing number of states however, are providing many types of school “choice” or “open enrollment” as it is called in many places. These options may be specific schools which allow students to attend outside of ones district.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, as of 2016 over 41 % of parents reported that they had that public school choice was available to them. Also in 2016, some 20 percent of the students in grades 1–12 were enrolled in public schools chosen by their families. Of the remaining 80 percent of students, 71 percent attended an assigned public school and 9 percent attended a private school. Not all school choice options are equally accessible to all families—private schools require personal financial investments. These are somewhat dated statistics, especially since the Pandemic has created enormous changes in school options. The big take away however, is that more and more school districts across the country are making different kinds of schools available to more students in catchment areas.
The organization National School Choice Week is able to point you to school choice availability in your state by filling out a simple form. For example, after looking up the school choice options in Illinois, I discovered that the three million school children in the state have options for traditional, public, private, public magnet, online schooling, homeschooling, charter and out of district parent options for schooling. There are even newer options available in some states called “learning pods.” The National School Choice Week organization can also put parents in touch with where to find out about parent teacher school resources in ones state by local zip code and so it is a terrific resource for local information. In 2023, our annual celebration will take place from January 22 – 28, 2023.
Created in 2011, National School Choice Week or NSCW is nonpartisan and nonpolitical. They do not, directly or indirectly, advocate for the passage or defeat of any legislation or policy proposals. This year the NSCW will formally take place from January 22 – 28, 2023.
Finally, there are other school “choice” information sources which are decidedly partisan in their orientation. For example, the Center for Education Reform is one organization which lobbies for broader Charter and private school options using government resources (vouchers) and is also generally unfriendly toward teachers’ unions.
If you are interested in school choice and the voucher issue in particular, I did fine two very good internet sites which can take you through the pros and cons of each issue. They are Britannica procon.org and the very interesting, Environmental Conscience site which hosts a lot of information but a very interesting Pro/Con school choice display. This is one man’s personal mission to educate you and I about the numerous challenges and choices we have in our daily lives regarding the environment….. I highly recommend having a look at environmental-conscience.com- This unusual site which has a very personal point of view, runs deep and wide and can only be discovered online.
Local school board involvement
3. How to get involved in your local school board?
Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about getting involved in local politics in order to make an impact on policy. The School Board is often a great place to begin, especially if your children have attended or will attend the schools in your area. Interestingly enough, there are many school boards across the country however, which have no parents and almost no educators on them. Rather, many become involved on their local school boards to oversee school budgets which they fear are bilking locals of tax dollars. For this reason alone, and to get a sense of the quality of public schools in your area, getting involved, even participating or listening in on the school board activities, is a good idea. Often, real estate values depend largely on the quality of schools within ones neighborhood. School board meetings frequently are run by the county Board’s of Education and can meet as infrequently as semi-yearly or as frequently as once per month depending upon the district.
Citizen oversight of the local school board is considered one of the cornerstones of democracy in the United States. School board members are locally elected public officials entrusted with governing a community's public schools. The National Association affiliated with governance and lobbying for school boards’ interests is the NSBA, the National School Boards Association and currently has more than 90,000 members.
