WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., June 30, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- It seems like common sense to offer a choice to parents as to what learning institute their children attend. However, the debate over this issue has embroiled America while doing little to benefit its schools. Richard G. Neal has seen the current system's flaws firsthand, and he offers straightforward solutions in Escape to Learning: An Educator's Answer to the Public School Crisis (now available through AuthorHouse).
Neal infuses his book with knowledge gleaned from five decades of "unparalleled experiences in every nook and cranny of the public schools." His years in the trenches have led him to his argument of why choice in education is a no-brainer, and he slams out his views in a hardball manner.
Escape to Learning covers a range of topics that all lead to one solution: equitably differentiated vouchers that would provide all children with an opportunity for quality education. Neal maintains that the public school system has become a "hopeless, bureaucratic jungle" and that it operates with little concern for parents and their children. "The only solution is desertion," Neal writes. Vouchers are the tickets to escape.
Compelling points are made throughout this detailed study of America's education crisis. Neal translates the notions of federal responsibility into what he believes is actually governmental control. Teachers unions, he posits, are doing their best to kill any reform while asking for unnecessary raises that will do nothing to improve their school. In addition, he explains why vouchers are not the evil tools of pillaging disadvantaged communities that many people believe them to be. All of these points and more can be found in the pages of Escape to Learning, an intriguing and candid examination of today's public schools and the changes that are needed to save them.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, George Washington University and Ohio State University, Neal served as a seaman on active duty in the U.S. Navy before entering the Air Force Reserves. He has taught students at all grade levels, as well as adult education, community college and graduate school courses. Early in his career, he served as the executive director of a large teachers' association and was a counselor for secondary and adult students. He earned assistant principal, principal, supervisor, director and associate superintendent positions in large school districts. Neal eventually left public school employment to become an associate director of an educational consulting firm serving the United States and Canada. He was executive director of the National Association of Educational Negotiators and the Association of Negotiators and Contract Administrators. He later became a nationally known consultant on how to decentralize school districts. For more information, visit www.schoolchoiceadvocate.com.
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