When a choice isn’t really a choice
We’d been meaning to write about this, but our friends at the Family Foundation beat us to it.
One of the options we talk about frequently when talking about school choice is charter schools. For many students around the coutry, public charter schools are becoming a positive option to access better educationl opportunities.
Virginia has in place legislation to permit the establishment of charter schools. Unfortunately, it is among the weakest in the nation, and according to the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) 2007 Report Card on American Education, only 3 charter schools were open in Virginia in the fall of 2007. (We’ll discuss the 2007 Report card more in a later blog post.)
So there has been a lot of excitement this summer in Richmod City, where earlier this summer there seemed to be signs that things were on track to open the first charter elementary school for students in the city. But when the issue came up for a final vote just recently, education reformer and School Choice Virginia Board member Keith West, objected to the way the school board had drawn up the contract- arguing it would bind the hands of the charter school, leaving it without the needed flexibility to succeed. It woud have created a “choice” that wouldn’t really be a real choice for anything different. It seemed that some of the other school board members were trying to simply appease parents and advocates for choice, without really giving them the opportunity to have a charter school that could be successful.
Again, it was opponents of choice playing politics with our children’s futures. Instead of putting politics aside to try and help the children of Richmond, some school board members wanted to use kids as a pawn in their game to attempt to stop the growing school choice movement.
Thankfully, Keith recognized this ploy for what it was, and stood up for students. The Family Foundation reports that Keith is working to try and rework the contract in a manner that will allow the charter school the flexibility and control it needs to thrive, and will attempt to have the school board revisit the issue and vote on a real contract.
School Choice Virginia urges the Richmond City School Board to approve a contract for the Patrick Henry Initiative that will give the charter school the tools it needs to be a positive option for students. Rather than pass a restrictive contract that will doom the Initiative to failure, we hope that the School Board will do what is right for students and approve a new contract that will give the school the opportunity to prove itself and succeed. Stop playing politics with our children’s education and give them all the opportunities possible to succeed.
Thanks for the welcome!
We’d like to thank the Family Foundation for their recent blog post welcoming School Choice Virginia to the blogosphere, as well as their continued dedication to the issue of educational choice.
They write:
“Education is important because it affects all citizens. When people fail in life or do not make use of their full potential because of the lack of a quality education, it often manifests itself in crime, poverty and broken families, among other social ills that burden the public at large. The sooner we can create freedom in public education in Virginia, the sooner public education will improve — as will the quality of life for all Virginians.”
The Family Foundation has been an important ally in efforts to bring meaningful reform to Virginia. We appreciate all of their hard work on this issue and look forward to continuing to work together to make educational choice a reality for all Virginia families.
