STORIES YOU WON'T HEAR FROM THE STATUS QUO; MAYORS TAKE CHARGE; BUCKEYE BLUNDER; NCLB-GONE
STORIES YOU WON'T HEAR FROM THE STATUS QUO
Charter schools across the country have overcome myriad obstacles to create successful schools that have spawned innovation and transformed the American public school system. A quick scan of newspaper articles, however, fails to reveal the full impact these schools have had on students, families, and entire communities. The unions clutter the papers with a barrage of propaganda against charter schools, and papers hungry for conflict publish stories of charter school difficulties. Ignored in this charade are the great stories of student achievement, academic innovation and triumph over adversity taking place at charter schools across the country. These stories are compiled in CER's recent publication Charter Schools Today: Stories of Inspiration, Struggle & Success, written by award-winning journalist Joe Williams. And if you have a great charter school story of your own, we invite you to submit your story at newswire@edreform.com.
MAYORS TAKE CHARGE
MOTOWN MADNESS. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick came out swinging last week in his State of the City Address when he called for all citizens to embrace all avenues for education. "We need to get away from this singular focus on [Detroit Public Schools]," Kilpatrick told the Detroit News. In his speech, Kilpatrick called for the city to support all schools: public, charter, private, and parochial. With the dismal state of Detroit schools, it's no wonder Kilpatrick has made the apparent 180 degree turnaround. Rising dropout rates, poor academic achievement and thousands of students and families leaving the city all pointed the mayor towards committing to a real reform agenda. While once upon a time the mayor seemed to shun reforms, rejecting an offer by philanthropist Bob Thompson to provide $200 million to build new charters, Kwame's embrace of reform and his willingness to change and do what is right for the students of Detroit should be commended. As the Detroit News noted, "State leaders should follow his lead and adopt the policies that encourage and reward good schools, whether they're public, charter, parochial or private."
SLAYING ST. LOUIS. Often, the expression "jumping on the bandwagon" carries a negative connotation. But in the case of St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, children across the city might have to thank the mayor for jumping on the mayoral-control bandwagon. Following the lead of Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, Slay has asked for the authority to approve the opening of charter schools. "Taxpayers have paid billions of dollars to get not good enough results for kids," the mayor told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Slay has pledged to approve as many charter schools as are "sustainable and successful" with a wide range of curricula and focuses. The charter school bill that would provide him with chartering authority was sponsored by Democratic Senator Jeff Smith, who recognizes the success of Indianapolis charter schools and believes that the district he represents is in better hands with the mayor when it comes to approving education reforms. With Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty asking for mayoral control, and Mayor Peterson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg successfully reforming their cities, who wouldn't welcome another visionary mayor fixing a struggling school system?
CHARTER SCHOOLS
BUCKEYE BLUNDER. Ohio has its first Democratic governor in 16 years and with him has come a whole lot of controversy surrounding education. In his State of the State address last week, Gov. Ted Strickland called for a moratorium on charter schools, the elimination of the statewide voucher program, and a prohibition on the involvement of education service providers (ESPs) in managing and capitalizing charter schools. Strickland's state of the state was bad enough, but over the weekend, his rancor became even more pointed, calling vouchers "inherently undemocratic" and claiming that charter management companies turn public dollars into charter school profits. Luckily, the Ohio public is speaking out against the governor's remarks. Sunday's Dayton Daily News pointed out that since the Buckeye State's charter school law was passed in 1997, children in the state have seen their scores improve on both state and national tests. Test scores also show that Ohio's charter schools, which take on a larger percentage of disadvantaged children, made greater gains than traditional, government-run schools on five subsections of the Ohio Proficiency Test when controlling for demographics. Thanks to these charter schools and the Cleveland and statewide voucher programs, students across the Buckeye State can shop for schools regardless of their race or economic status.
STANDARDS AND ACCOUNTABILITY
NCLB-GONE? Few issues have graced as many pages of news print as the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. Since January, policy wonks and pundits have offered opinion after opinion on where the landmark education bill should go next. The status quo takes the position that there should be fewer requirements on states and more money, while backers believe Congress must tighten up loopholes that let states and communities slide from greater accountability and consequences. Last week, education Chair George Miller (D-CA) gave voice to the critics in a hearing that seemed designed to give the education establishment their day in public court. Many criticized the bill as unrealistic, saying that it is impossible to expect 100 percent of students to reach proficiency by 2014. Both AFT president Ed McElroy and NEA president Reg Weaver were on hand to demand more funding without acknowledging that such a throw-money-at-it prescription has not yielded results in the previous 30 years. One thing is certain - Rep. Miller is firm on accountability, a testament to the bi-partisan nature of the bill to this day.
posted by Whitney Tilson at 11:36 PM
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