Education

The topic of education is obviously one of the most relevant aspects of the Nonprofit Sector that we will encounter in this class being that I am currently a student. The kind of education that you have will have a significant impact on the rest of your life. In general, there is a positive correlation between the amount of education that you acquire throughout your life, and the quality of life that you enjoy (usually meaning salary and other assets and/or social status). Obviously this is not always the case, but the statistics support this argument quite favorably.

The first thing that I want to address in regards to the topic of education is the contrast between public and private. I grew up in a small town in which there was only one high school, so the choice between attending public or private school was not an issue for me. However, there were a decent amount private schools located in more metropolitan areas that I competed with in sports because they had similar enrollments and thus competed in a similar classification. These schools were kind of annoying in that they didn’t really fit the profile of schools like mine because they could recruit students from densely populated areas to join their teams, while we had to work with what was available. My team was still successful, but it was always kind of annoying to see teams like this excel. A little bit off point, but relevant in my eyes nonetheless. I always thought of schools like this to be somewhat elitist, that is why I was surprised to read that salaries for private k-12 teachers was actually significantly lower than that of those at public schools. If you are a parent paying extra money to send your child to a school like this wouldn’t you want them to learn from the most highly qualified educators? It just seems strange that the quality of education is considered better at private institutions given these discrepancies in funding.

High school wasn’t my last experience with private institutions as, ironically enough, I enrolled at a private college out of high school (Linfield). A factor that played a part in this decision was the hype that I had heard surrounding getting an education from a private school (with the other part being that they allowed me the opportunity to play basketball). As the book says students and parents have been found to be more satisfied with private education. I only went to Linfield for one term before transferring to the U of O, but in all honesty I really didn’t see what the big deal was. In comparison to my 2 years at Oregon, I really didn’t feel I was gaining any better of a learning experience being at a private school. My reasons for transferring really had nothing to do with education and I was even prepared to experience a downgrade in the quality of my education, but I really haven’t felt that. So in conclusion, my opinion is that the differences between public and private schools are fairly overblown. I realize that you are in smaller classrooms with more individual attention available, but the fact of the matter is these differences can be negated. I truly believe that what you get out of your education is determined by how much you put into. If you put in enough effort you will be rewarded intellectually no matter what type of school you attend.

2nd Post

Before even reading chapter 3 I presumed that religion was a major factor in the nonprofit sector and the information in this chapter did nothing but reinforce this presumption. Religion is a fundamental part of everyday life. This is why I wasn’t surprised to find that the United States is among the most religious of the developed nations. It seems that no matter where you go, the presence of religious is always felt. Whether be a small town church, or religious influences being played out in politics you can see how much of a factor religion is in our society. Having said this, I was still fairly surprised at just how widespread truly is after looking at the statistics. I knew there were a lot of different churches, but 365,000 (the number of churches in America) is quite a staggering number. This obviously would coincide with a high rate of religious affiliation, which I once again expected but did not anticipate the statistics given in the book. 70 percent of people in America were reported to have claimed to attend yearly and 40 percent claim they go to church every week. When I think about all of the people I know, I would definitely say that these numbers would be a lot lower. Obviously this has a lot to do with the culture surrounding the area I grew up in, but it really puts things into perspective as to just how big religion is in America. Religion seems to be somewhat of a separate entity from the rest of the nonprofit sector. It seems to play a very vital role in charitable activities yet its purpose is not solely to provide for these types of services. Most other nonprofit organizations focus on a specific or several specific areas while religious organizations will make contributions in all areas to some extent. This makes religion very influential, and, in my opinion, maybe too influential. The intertwining of church and state, in my opinion, hinders our political system and should avoid interrelations.

Social services are usually the first thing to come to my when thinking about nonprofit’s. They are extremely necessary components that help to keep our society afloat. The charitable contributions of social service npo’s simply could not be matched by the government which is probably why they provide, “by far the dominant source of nonprofit social service revenue”. As I alluded to earlier, it seems as if religious organizations and social service npo’s are quite interrelated as they often work together to achieve similar goals. All in all it comes down to creating a better society by helping those in need. The continuance of the government’s large role in funding these organizations will be vital in keeping the status quo. It will be interesting to see what kind of shifts in government funding will take place in the future. Will these organizations become more self dependent if the government is forced to cut back funding? Will we see an increase in for profit activities within npo’s? This could cause problems in the business climate as they are known to have some unfair advantages over private businesses doing similar activities. No matter what the future holds, social service nonprofit organizations will continue to be a major factor in our society, as they have been for decades.