Randi on Eduwonk

Randi Weingarten is following in Chris Cerf's footsteps as a guest blogger on Andy Rotherham's Eduwonk.  Kudos to her for being willing to argue her point of view on a reform-oriented web site.  In general, I think that people involved in the school reform debate tend to hang out -- both in person and online -- with like-minded people (I'll admit to being guilty of this some -- much? -- of the time), so what Randi is doing is important.  Hey, maybe someday I'll be invited to guest blog on Edwize!  (The UFT's blog at www.edwize.org <http://www.edwize.org> .)

Needless to say, I disagree with nearly everything Randi writes, but that's a story for another time.  In the meantime, I'll refer you to some of my past comments about charter schools:

• Just a few weeks ago, Harvard professor Caroline Hoxby showed the charter schools in NYC are kicking butt: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2007/07/first-year-report-on-new-york-city.html.
  

• A federal  Department of Education study in August 2006 purported to show that charter schools are doing worse than regular public schools.  Here is the rebuttal by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (http://edreform.blogspot.com/2006/08/what-charter-school-research-is-and-is.html),  my rebuttal of a NY Times editorial about this study (http://edreform.blogspot.com/2006/08/exploding-charter-school-myth.html>), and further comments in response to a Wall St. Journal editorial (http://edreform.blogspot.com/2006/08/charter-school-nonsense.html>)
  

• And here’s what I wrote about a charter school that shares the same building and students with a regular public school – and the reasons why the charter school is taking children to 70% at grade level in one year vs. 10-20% for the regular public  school: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2007/03/democracy-prep-charter-school-vs.html>
  

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Chartering Educational Excellence: Why Teachers Matter Most
Randi Weingarten
Opinions here are my own and not necessarily those of the United Federation of Teachers, where I serve as President.

<http://www.eduwonk.com/2007/08/chartering-educational-excellence-why.html>
 
In 1988, Al Shanker, the late president of the American Federation of Teachers, launched the country's charter school movement. While there were many founding contributors to this school reform that now educates over 1 million students in 4,000 schools, no one was more influential in developing the charter school concept and promoting it nationwide than Al.