Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of articles featuring the perspectives of current and recent Michigan public school teachers’ experiences with school choice. See the first article here.

Decades of working in a public school district can strengthen a person’s support for the right of parents to choose the best education for their child. One recently retired Michigan teacher of 40 years sees school choice as a powerful benefit for everyone involved.

Rooted in her southern Michigan community, Catherine Thomasma taught in Sturgis Public Schools from 1978 to 2018. Most of those 40 years she spent teaching math, science and social studies to early elementary students. She served the last five years as the lead teacher in her building.

From her earliest age, Thomasma saw parental choice in education as a given, since her siblings attended both public and Catholic schools.

“I believe parents are the first teachers of their children and just like so many other things, parents get to decide,” she said, citing important decisions related to health and nutrition. “School is just another thing where I think parents are the best (ones) to make that decision for their families.”

As a child, Thomasma enjoyed babysitting and playing school with four younger brothers. She was inspired to follow a career path in education by her parents, who were both teachers, as well as her own positive early classroom experiences. Her classroom career only helped solidify her support for choice in education. She equates parents’ ability to make educational choices with the personal involvement that makes them more accountable for their children’s learning.

The results showed up in many of the kids she taught. “If parents are choosing the school, it gives them a vested interest in their child’s success,” she said. “Children, generally, whose parents are behind education, the children behave better [and] try harder because they know that their parents are concerned about their education.”

While not all parents can be counted on to place great value in their children’s education, Thomasma does not believe that ought to hold back others from exercising that responsibility. “I’m not sure that some parent’s lack of interest and initiative should limit other families in their choices,” she said.

Educational choice in the Sturgis area, a community near the Indiana border, looks different than in some other parts of the state. In surrounding St. Joseph County, several parochial schools actively serve students’ families. Through the Schools of Choice program, hundreds of students either leave Sturgis to attend neighboring districts or enroll in Sturgis schools from a different address.

Thomasma said she never felt threatened by these other options nor did she hear any of her fellow teachers express such feelings. Instead, she expressed optimism about local parents’ judgment to seek out schools that consistently see good results and provide unique learning experiences for kids. Information about high-performing schools would reach parents who wished to provide their children the best possible opportunities, ultimately to the benefit of the broader community.

One prominent public school option is less familiar and accessible to families in Sturgis. A handful of local students are enrolled in various cyber schools, charter schools that offer students full-time online instruction. But the nearest brick-and-mortar charter school open to Michigan students is more than 25 miles away, in Coldwater. For a while, Thomasma worked closely with a former charter school teacher. What she learned about the model led her to consider starting her own math-and-science-themed charter school, though she never went through with it.

Critics of public charter schools often complain that they take students, and by extension, funding, away from district schools. Thomasma disagrees: “I just felt like parents have a right to choose and if that’s what they want for their kids then they should have that choice.”

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