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.
The latest on Richmond’s Charter school situation…
The Family Foundation has the latest on the ongoing situation with the Richmond City charter elementary school proposal that we had mentioned last week.
As we noted yesterday, School Choice Virginia Board member Keith West has been leading the fight from his position on the Richmond City School Board to try and get a vote on a charter that will give the Patrick Henry Initiative the flexibility and control it needs to have a chance at success.
The Family Foundation reports:
Virginia may yet get its first charter elementary school. Richmond School Board member Keith West yesterday proposed a new contract for the Patrick Henry Initiative. Although some on the board threatened to committee it to death or kill it in some other parliamentary procedure, the contract apparently got a fair hearing in the board’s legal committee yesterday — five hours worth. It will be taken up again by the committee on September 24, then by the board itself on October 6.
We here at School Choice Virginia continue to appreciate the effort that Keith has put into giving the charter school initiative a fair hearing, and hope that the School Board will give the new contract the consideration it deserves. More importantly, we hope the Board will give families and children the choices they deserve and the opportunities they need to be successful.
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.
