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Have We Lost Sight of the Promise of Public Schools Analysis Q’s + Visual

Prompt

  1. What does Hannah Jones mean by the “social contract” (para. 12)? Why is this concept vital to her argument?
  2. Ultimately, how does Hannah-Jones answer the question she poses in her title? Explain why you agree or disagree with her. Refer to specifics in the essay, as well as your own experience and knowledge. (Your thesis statement + evidence/support)
  3. How is this cartoon reinforcing or challenging the beliefs about public education?

Response

  1. A social contract represents the obligations a citizen has to society, where people behave and make actions not off of selfish interests, but for the collective good of the community. While breaking the social contract is not illegal, it is often frowned upon.
  2. Hannah-Jones response to the question, “Have We Lost Sight of the Promise of Public Schools” is yes, claiming how the privatization and expansion of charter schools are employing selective admission policies that keep most kids out, citing and comparing these tactics to those before the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. I would disagree with this claim, as to me there is a lack of conclusive evidence with evidence of racist tactics used before the civil rights movement. If students would like to join top, competitive, charter schools funded by the government, it is reasonable to believe that most of the students would be rejected, similar to the admissions process of any other high-ranking, competitive college. This is how top, high ranking schools keep their rank - they accept only the cream of the crop, the best of the best. The claims of racism and discrimination are not backed by factual evidence, but rather speculation. Additionally, Hannah-Jones misrepresents the idea of democracy with the idea of the social contract. While breaking this idea of the social contract is frowned upon, democracy is founded off the idea that the people vote for what they believe will benefit them the most. Not every citizen would be happy to see their taxes being spent on services that they would never use, hence the reason that it is the collective response of the voters that is impactful and not the individual voters beliefs.
  3. The cartoon depicts how funding and attention that was going towards public schools is being reallocated towards charter schools. The cartoon consists of many construction workers taking and moving the bricks of the public school towards the constructing “another great Charter School.” The cartoon reinforces the idea that the public education system is often lacking of funding and has to deal the competitive nature of charter schools.