Real N.Y. school reform has only just begun

Our new Executive Director of Democrats for Education Reform, Joe Williams (author of Cheating Our Kids), with his first Op Ed in his new role -- a hard-hitting piece in the NY Daily News yesterday.

For those of us who believe in profound school reform, however, the work is only just beginning. If we learned anything from the governor's hard-fought budget battles, it is that Spitzer's broader reform agenda is still entirely up for grabs. As Mayor Bloomberg himself noted this week, too many powerful forces remain ready to go to the barricades to fight the kind of changes that the public is demanding.

A backlog of proposed schools and long-planned applications for new charters will mean that reformers will soon find themselves right back in Albany begging for the cap to be raised once again. And special interests - notably, teachers' union leaders - will again try to stop them in their tracks to preserve a status quo that is working just fine for everyone but our children.

It is time to put to rest the tired notion that what is best for union bosses is also what is best for students, teachers and schools.

Many Democrats in particular will find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between, on the one hand, a reform-minded governor who is responding to a frustrated public and, on the other, to entrenched political forces that have proven to be more than willing to simply continue along without making important changes that would make excellence commonplace in our schools.

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Real N.Y. school reform has only just begun

Be Our Guest

BY JOE WILLIAMS

NY Daily News, Wednesday, April 4th 2007, 4:00 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/04/04/2007-04-04_real_ny_school_reform_has_only_just_begu.html

'New Yorkers didn't whisper for change on Election Day; they shouted for it.'

- Gov. Spitzer's 2007 State of the State Address

In the just-approved state budget, Gov. Spitzer won some significant changes for New York's public schools, including a much-needed 50-school increase in the number of new public charter schools allowed in the city.

That's no small thing. In the short term, these schools will provide crucial options for parents who are frustrated by poor quality traditional public school options. And over the long run, the new publicly accountable schools - which, by law, are shut down if they're not performing up to snuff - will incubate and inspire the kind of change that can open the doors of opportunity to all of our children.

If you haven't already seen charter schools like the KIPP Academy, Amistad or Excellence Charter School in action, I would urge you to witness their impact and comb their reading and math scores with your own eyes. Their results - in getting overwhelming poor and minority students to achieve at the highest levels - are powerful and irrefutable. At KIPP Academy in the South Bronx, for instance, 86% of eighth-graders passed their state math exams - compared with 16% of students in surrounding South Bronx neighborhood schools.

For those of us who believe in profound school reform, however, the work is only just beginning. If we learned anything from the governor's hard-fought budget battles, it is that Spitzer's broader reform agenda is still entirely up for grabs. As Mayor Bloomberg himself noted this week, too many powerful forces remain ready to go to the barricades to fight the kind of changes that the public is demanding.

A backlog of proposed schools and long-planned applications for new charters will mean that reformers will soon find themselves right back in Albany begging for the cap to be raised once again. And special interests - notably, teachers' union leaders - will again try to stop them in their tracks to preserve a status quo that is working just fine for everyone but our children.

It is time to put to rest the tired notion that what is best for union bosses is also what is best for students, teachers and schools.

Many Democrats in particular will find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between, on the one hand, a reform-minded governor who is responding to a frustrated public and, on the other, to entrenched political forces that have proven to be more than willing to simply continue along without making important changes that would make excellence commonplace in our schools.

Among the reforms we must begin to try without further delay: genuine accountability for our teachers that gives principals more authority to hire and fire educators; pay scales that give different teachers different salaries, based on market realities and quality; an aggressive overhaul of the way teachers are trained; and more choice for students and families.

To be sure, the most historic part of this year's education budget is the resolution of the 14-year-old Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, under which the state will now hike its spending on education by billions of dollars per year. But lasting change will require much more than just sending more and more money into systems where children compete with grownups for their share of the attention. In that regard, the fight has just begun.

Joe Williams, author of the book "Cheating Our Kids," is executive director of Democrats for Education Reform