Virginia Prepares for 2009 Legislative Session
With the 2008 elections behind us, we are already preparing for the fast-approaching 2009 Virginia legislative session that begins in January.
As such, we wanted to repost some tips we had shared earlier this year for how you can get involved with School Choice Virginia and our efforts here in the Commonwealth. As we get closer to the start of sesison, we will be sharing more information and more ways you can help bring about education changes in Virginia.
1. Sign up today for our email newsletters. Also encourage your friends and family to sign up on our website: www.schoolchoiceva.com. We will send out periodic email updates with action alerts, news and school choice event notices, as well as other ways in which you can get involved in helping to bring affordable and available educational options to Virginia.
2. Write letters to the editor of your local paper. Getting the message to the media from parents and families who support educational choice is an important step. Lawmakers and education leaders read the editorial pages. Seeing letters supporting educational choice written by neighbors from in their communities can be a strong influence. Letters should generally be 200-300 words, though papers vary on their requirements. School Choice Virginia can help you find contact information for submitting your letters.
3. Write a letter to your state delegate and senator sharing your support for school choice. You can contact us at School Choice Virginia, or look up your legislator’s contact information online here. Personal stories about how educational choices have affected your child or your family can be very powerful for lawmakers.
4. Let us know about educational news making headlines in your area. Every day we try and read the headlines from around the Commonwealth, but sometimes you may catch a story that we miss. We encourage you to share these stories with us so we can share them with others or respond to them in a timely manner.
5. Stay up to date on school choice news and information via our website: www.schoolchoiceva.com. We have just recently launched our site, but in the coming weeks and months, we will be adding lots more links and information on how individuals can help make a difference for educational choice in Virginia.
Education and Presidential Politics
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the candidates’ positions on education and provides this brief summary in “The Election Choice: Education.”
Of note:
Mr. McCain would pursue education reforms that institute equality of choice in the K-12 system. He would allow parents whose kids are locked into failing public schools to opt out, whether in favor of another public school, a charter school or through voucher or scholarship programs for private options. Parents, he believes, ought to have more control over their education dollars.
Education and National Security
With much focus lately being placed on the national economy, less focus has been placed on our national security.
Even so, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recognizes the relationship between education and our national security.
In a recent Reuters article, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quoted as saying that the “lack of quality education for all children jeopardizes the fundamental American belief that every citizen has the opportunity for success, no matter their background or place of origin.” She added that “if we can’t keep that true for every American, we’re going to lose who we are, and then we won’t lead – and so it is, for me, the most pressing national security issue.”
Andrew Campanella of Alliance for School Choice agrees with Rice. “When you have a bad education system, we’re going to lose jobs and lose small businesses and lose our ability to compete,” he contends. “When we lose the fundamental core of our economic prosperity, we will be become weak and we will become more vulnerable to attack.”
We agree that improving education is critical both for our future economic stability as well as to help ensure our national security.
“Why we need choice”
For the first time, the issue of school choice is making its way into debates and headlines in a presidential campaign.
While Senator Obama has taken the side of the teachers unions with his opposition to choice, Senator McCain has embraced the issue of school choice, saying in one debate that ”we have to give the same choice,” to children that “Senator Obama and Mrs. Obama had and Cindy and I had.”
In the New York Times, Lance T. Izumi, a senior fellow in California studies and the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, considers the positions of Senator McCain and Senator Obama in this article, “Why we need choice,” from October 22.
He writes:
So whose view is better public policy? Mr. Obama, the utilitarian, or Mr. McCain, the rights crusader? In Professor Viteritti’s opinion, “choice constitutes good public policy because it is fair, not because its effects are measurable by academicians who would not dream of sharing the decision about where to send their own children to school.” Indeed, parents who make the choice not to send their children to public schools do so for a wide variety of reasons not limited simply to concerns about academic performance and future job prospects.
This summer, I attended a large gathering of liberal/progressive home-schoolers. When I asked parents why they decided to home-school their children, I got many different answers. Some said that they were worried about the violence and bullying in their public schools. Others said that they disliked the standardization of many public schools and the testing and other curriculum requirements that they felt hindered their children’s learning. Unlike Mr. Obama’s narrow measure of choice, these people chose home-schooling for the equity reason that it was their right and it was in the best interests of their individual child.
Shouldn’t we put the power of education in the hands of families and not the government? You can read the rest of the article online here.
Choices for special needs
School choice a special pick parents make
Public schools do an excellent job of providing a free and appropriate education for most children who are enrolled in special education programs. Every special needs child deserves the best education possible.
But as Leon has experienced, one difficulty in the public school can ruin a child’s future —- and an entire life.
That’s why we will continue to see parents flock to school choice programs such as the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship.
Parents can make the best decision where their son or daughter should attend school and what environment is best.
It is enormously challenging to be the parent of a child with special needs.
Hopefully the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship is bringing some sense of normalcy to children and their parents who are finding hope in smaller classrooms, different schools and happier educational environments
Richmond gets Charter Elementary School… for now
Back in September, we told you about the ongoing battle over allowing Richmond’s first Charter Elementary School. When the City School Board had tried to approve a charter that wouldn’t allow the school the flexibility to succeed, School Choice Virginia Board member- and Richmond School Board member- Keith West stood up and re-worked the charter to allow the school more of an opportunity to succeed.
Last night the Board voted again, on a revised charter, and in a 5-0 vote, approved the charter for the establishment of the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts.
“Tonight’s vote reaffirms the School Board’s commitment to providing innovative solutions to education,” said Antione Green, the president of the Richmond Crusade for Voters and, for the past two months, a member of the Patrick Henry board.
While there is still much up in the air (for example when the new school board takes office in January, they could vote to end the contract, which we believe would be a disservice to Richmond students and families), we are very pleased that the Richmond City School Board is giving this initiative a chance. The students and families of Richmond- and all of Virginia- deserve to have options when it comes to education, and this is an important step in allowing them those options.
School choice and teachers
Most of the time when we discuss school choice, we talk about options for students and their families. But what about school choice for teachers?
Allison Kasic at the Independent Women’s Forum takes a look at our current one-size-fits-all model of education and the impact that has on teachers.
Education is the second largest industry in the United States, but unlike other professions, teachers have fewer options when it comes to their career track. Consider the choices that most people get to make in their careers: employees can choose to specialize in a certain area, to work for a large or small company, or perhaps weigh a higher salary vs. a more flexible schedule. That simply doesn’t exist on a large scale for teachers. Just as most students attend an assigned, government-run school, most teachers are employed by those same public schools.
Such a cookie-cutter system creates few choices for teachers. Within a given district, salaries, administrative set-up, and curriculum are mostly the same. Schools rarely compete to attract and retain the best teachers. Except for the minority of teachers that gain employment through a private or charter school, teachers are largely trapped within a one-size-fits-all system.
She goes on to explain how choice would benefit teachers- and that would be an added benefit for students as well.
Parents should take note. Having a good teacher has been widely documented to improve the results of students. Parents and students would be better much served by an education system that rewards good teaching (through policies such as merit pay), rather than a failing system that demoralizes and frustrates teachers.
The key to such an improved system is more choice. Most of the debate about school choice has centered on the policy’s impact on students, but teachers would benefit from greater freedom and a more diverse education marketplace as well.
We know that a free market with choice and competition improves the quality of products in our daily lives.
Teachers unions should recognize that a more robust education marketplace would be good for their members as well as students. Unfortunately, to date they have been on the wrong side of this issue.
This article is definitely worth a read, and for more information, visit IWF’s Women for School Choice Program.
Another option: vouchers
We haven’t talked a lot about vouchers here at School Choice Virginia, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t one option that is already benefitting many students across the country.
In this op-ed for the Appeal-Democrat in California, the author, Douglas Binderup, argues that vouchers are working already in localities across the country.
Having been in place now for more than a decade the results are in: publicly-funded vouchers have proven to be successful in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Dayton, San Antonio and most recently the state of Florida. The voucher system has been so successful in our nation’s capital that the democrat-controlled congress, under pressure from the National Teacher’s Union, is trying to outlaw it.
He continues that those who oppose vouchers use scare tactics, rather than facts to try and defeat choice measures.
The opponents of the school voucher system have used ad hominem arguments to scare the public and keep the rank and file in line. The idea that vouchers would condemn the worst performing students because the private schools would recruit the best students has been proven wrong and actually, the reverse is true. The costs to educate a voucher student are half of what it takes to educate a public school student, thereby affording teachers more time with struggling students in smaller classes. Another myth that has been dispelled is the fear that there would be mass teacher layoffs under the voucher system. What has actually happened in that a lot of teachers have decided to open up their own private schools. Teachers in areas where vouchers have been established have reported that because of the competition, the yoke of bureaucratic regulations have loosened and they are able to exercise more creativity. When schools must compete, it is our youth that are the winners.
Finally, he concludes with three challenges:
• It is time to put the interests of our youth over special interests.
• It is time to embrace the change that will give our youth a leg up in a competitive world.
• It is time to assume our roll as leaders in an ever-changing world.
These are 3 key steps that should be embraced by all who want to improve education and create more affordable choices for all.
Choice… but only on THEIR terms
The scores are in and only one Petersburg school remains fully accredited, according to the state Department of Education.
A sad reality for families in Petersburg, and unfortunately a sad reality for too many families in Virginia. While progress is being made across the Commonwealth, it is still unacceptable to have any students trapped in schools that are failing them.
But, there is somewhat of a ray of hope. As a result of the schools continuing to not meet their goals, the school system will be forced to implement some type of choice for students, albeit a choice that is still mostly under the control of the existing school system.
Pyle said the agreement with the Petersburg schools required a major restructuring of the schools if certain objectives weren’t met. “Those objectives have not been met,” Pyle said.
As a result, the school system must put into place a contingency plan that was developed at the time of the agreement with the state. Pyle said the city’s school system will have to work with a lead turnaround partner to create a charter-like program and provide a choice for parents and students.
“Independence in the instructional program is the key,” Pyle said.
He added that the other goal of the program would be to provide the city with a model for its secondary schools. “The city already has a model at the elementary school level with Robert E. Lee Elementary School,” Pyle said.
An independently managed school program has been used with great success throughout the country, Pyle said. Petersburg will be the first school district in the state to implement such a program.
Victory said that how the plan is implemented will be at the discretion of the board.
We hope that the board will give the new program the autonomy and flexibility it needs to be successful for Petersburg students. We just wish that the government would understand the benefits of choice for all students all the time, not just when government decides they want it.
How’s this for a shock!?
We’ve said it before, times are changing and so are those on the front lines of efforts to bring greater school choice to students and families.
In Florida, one of the leading states when it comes to educational options, the St. Petersburg Times reports that some of the most vocal opponents of choice are now those leading the fight for the very choices they once opposed!
Doug Tuthill, a former Pinellas County teachers union president who once said vouchers were based on “false assumptions and faulty logic,” is the new president of the Florida School Choice Fund, the leading voucher organization in the state.
And if that wasn’t holy-smokes enough, the group’s new communications director is Jon East, a former member of the St. Petersburg Times editorial board who, until his retirement last week, sharply criticized vouchers for years.
Makes your jaw drop a bit, doesn’t it? Or if you’re still an opponent of educational options, it might just make you groan.
Told where East was now working, Mark Pudlow, the usually affable spokesman for the state teachers union, groaned then declined comment.
Like we’ve said, times are changing, and we are very excited to see more and more people across the country embracing educational choice for students and families.
