Application Essay on "School Closure Research -- Peggy and Brian"

Application Essay 17 pages (5260 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

School Closure Research -- Peggy and Brian Scenario

It is always difficult to make decisions that involve closing public services, most especially when those services are public education. However, a fiscally responsible government must have guidelines and has promised to spend the public's dollars wisely. Our analysis revolves around Kingston, a small wheat belt town about 60 km from the nearest regional centre, Beeganup. Kingston is quite isolated but is able to communicate and receive regular transportation of freight, sundries, and other goods. The population is listed as just over 1,100, but almost half are residents on rural farms surrounding the township.

Unfortunately, the trend in Kingston is both a diaspora and decline -- the local weekly newspaper had to fold due to lack of funding, local residents travel to Beeganup for fresh produce, healthcare, and professional services, and farms are consolidating and young people moving outside the community. Even with an effort at an entrepreneurial resurgence, it is clear the town is no longer self-sufficient, and provides little more than a political centre for residents.

The school is a district based all-encompassing organization, serving children between ages 5 and 15. It has been operational since 1960, employees locals for assistance and maintenance, and has remained one of the common hubs for the community. The school currently serves 118 students, with only 22 in upper levels. Most classes are grouped and handled by 12 primary, and 7 secondary teachers. The very creative administration has combined courses and teacher loads to cater to the needs of the students. Based on the statistics from 1995 to 1999, however, the decision was made to close the high school section of the school, allowing the pre-primary and primary sections of the school to operate with current staff. Students in years 8 to 10 will need to be bussed 60 km to the Beeganup Senior High School, adding 1 to 1.5 hours onto each leg of the day. Of course, this decision was vigorously protested, but was upheld by the National and Regional Education Departments based on student to staff ratios and trends (See Appendix 1 for Kingston School enrollment data).

The community is naturally upset, believing they had not only not been appropriately consulted, but that the school is so vital to the community that any decision that would be a potential detriment to the overall good would be tragic. Letters to the editor abound that the public will fight the closure with all possible means. Most community members see the decision as one made from a central government standpoint, purely for fiscal and political reasons (Sheedy, 1999).

Decisions -- Utilitarianism and Deontology -- The basic research question is, of course, should the High School portion of the school be closed, and those students transferred to Beeganup High School. If we look at the situation logically, we find several reasons supporting a pro and con stance regarding closure:

Pro-Closure

Anti-Closure

Tax revenues from the area do not support the school remaining open for all grades.

Moving high schoolers out of the area will disrupt the community.

It is more fiscally responsible to send the students to Beeganup.

Community taxes should remain funding community systems.

Students will have greater social and academic opportunities at Beeganup.

Students are comfortable with classmates.

Moving High School to Beeganup will allow for a greater focus in the early and middle grades.

Commute is too long, will disrupt family and work life.

Quality of education may actually improve in Kingston since teachers can focus more on preparation for advanced work in High School.

Community members were not part of this political decision.

There is still a school, still community involvement, and still a presence; only a few grades with very few students are affected.

The people making the decision have no vested interest in the community.

Time spent in commuting may be positively used for reading or study, homework.

Local education is better for the community, the students, and the future.

Because of funding, there are more opportunities for extra-curricular activities at Beeganup.

Some parents will send all their children to Beeganup, diminishing the chance for the school to exist at all.

Brian and Peggy are two researchers from the University who find this situation quite interesting, both from a philosophical and pedagogical focus. Both can see the positives and negatives of the situation. However, they each have a different and unique approach to research methodology. Among their early group discussions with their advisor though, is the philosophical problem faced - who is served by the closure? Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? And, in fact, would the older students' educational needs be far better served with the change? Under the advice of their advisor, the both did some research into the subject of the ethical issues surrounding this issue, believing that to do the research properly they should have at least a background in the morality of the dilemma.

Even prior to the formalization of the terms utilitarianism and deontology, the core ideas of each have been debated for centuries. The Ancient Greeks argued over the needs of the individual as opposed to the needs of the State (Athens, for example); and throughout history generals and heads of state have had to balance out the ends vs. The means of attainment. The concept even made it to the motion picture screen and was given a popular treatment in numerous motion pictures. At the center of this debate is the notion that many remain dissatisfied with the definition of "good" or "appropriate" being at the whim of a particular social order, or ruling elite. This debate may be found in Aristotle, Socrates, and Aquinas, leading to more contemporary political notions from Lock, Kant, and even Martin Luther King, Jr.

Forming the core modern argument, for instance, Aquinas argued that there were certain universal behaviors that were either right or wrong as ordained by the Divine. Hobbes and Locke differed, and put forth the notion that there were natural rights, or "states of nature," but disagreed on the controlling factors of those natural tendencies. Kant took this further, reacting, and argued that a state or society must be organized by the way laws and justice was universally true, available, and, most importantly, justified by humanity. Yet, for Kant, these laws should respect the equality, freedom, and autonomy of the citizens. In this way Kant, prescribed that basic rights were necessary for civil society, and becomes a rubric by which we may understand modern utilitarian principles and their interdependence with the concept of human rights (Haydn, 2001).

In general, utilitarianism is an ethical system most often attributed to John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, both 19th century social philosophers commenting on conditions arising from the Industrial Revolution. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical thing one can do is any action that will maximize the happiness within an organization or society. Actions have quantitative outcomes and the ethical choices that lead to the "greatest good for the greatest number" are the appropriate decisions, even if that means subsuming the rights of certain individuals (Troyer, 2003, 256-62). It is considered to be a consequential outlook in the sense that while outcomes cannot be predicted the judgment of an action is based on the outcome -- or, "the ends justify the means" (See, for instance, Groves, 2003).

Deontology is a compatible, but alternative ethical system that has its roots in Ancient Greece, but is most often attributed to Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher writing about a century prior to Mill and Benthem. In utilitarianism, the focus is on outcomes, or the ends of an action; in deontology the actions themselves must be ethical and moral, or the outcome is moot. Deontology argues that there are norms and truths that are universal for all humans; actions then have a predisposition to right or wrong, moral or immoral. Kant believed that humans should act, at all times, as if their individual actions would have consequences for all of society. Morality, then, is based on rational thought and is the direction most humans innately want. Roughly, deontology is "the means justify the ends" (Kamm, 2007).

Brian and Peggy meet to discuss their analysis of the situation. Brian points out that the utilitarian approach to the situation, and the guiding principle behind the research should focus on what is the best possible good, or outcome, for all concerned. Peggy disagrees, believing that the deontological approach clearly shows that if the change harms even one student, that is an unacceptable risk. Thus, they still have a conundrum which, hopefully, the research will rectifty:

Issue

Brian (Utilitarianism)

Peggy (Deontology)

Closing of the HS portion of the school.

Finds a way to approach the decision in an optimistic manner.

Finds that the potential harm of one student does not justify the situation.

Funding of the HS

The community does not support enough funding, therefore, it must come from elsewhere. This is a rational decision.

The community… READ MORE

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