You’re in the purple box
Nothing like a bureaucrat-controlled computer program deciding where your child should go to school, right?
So the other night I was talking to a representative of the local public school district. (And yes, I refrained from my normal debates about school choice and education reforms.) Anyways, so I wanted to confirm to what school my children would be assigned based on my address. Conveniently, she has with her a lovely color-coded map of the city- showing the often-confusing and seemingly-random boundaries drawn up for each school.
My house was located in a nice little purple “box.” (I use “box” loosely as the shape looked more like a rough approximation of a square with a funny shaped diamond attached arbitrarily to the side of it.)
Now I know they have a “reason” for all these crazy shapes they draw up on their maps- they want to create nice diverse student populations so they have to get rather creative with their line drawing.
So, even though you may have not one, but two schools located just blocks away, no, you may be assigned to another school even further away. And even if you wanted your child to attend one of those closer schools (because, well, they are closer and their students perform better), no, because the computer says so, you go to school X.
Make sense to you?
See, in their system, it isn’t about what you, as a parent want. It isn’t about what is best for your child even (though that part still gets me since I really thought education was supposed to be about students). It is about what works for a bunch of adults who have never even met the children they are randomly assigning to schools.
So what’s my point? Well, simply that I don’t think we’ll ever truly improve education in this country until we break out of the box. Until we put educational decisions back in the hands of parents (who, one would assume after knowing their own child for 5 years would know a bit more about them than a computer operated by a central-office bureaucrat). Until we reject a status-quo system that isn’t working for our children.
Boxing our kids in is not the solution.
Kris Amundson to work on education reform
We’d like to offer our best wishes to retiring Virginia Delegate Kris Amundson as she joins the team of education reformers!
Delegate Amundson announced on her blog that she’s taking a new job:
…one week from today, I am starting a new job at Education Sector, an education think tank in Washington, DC. I’ll be their communications manager, helping them get the word out about their thoughtful reports and analysis. Their motto, “Independent Analysis, Innovative Ideas,” tells you a lot about why I was attracted to the organization.
Education Sector is a self-described:
…independent think tank that challenges conventional thinking in education policy. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to achieving measurable impact in education policy, both by improving existing reform initiatives and by developing new, innovative solutions to our nation’s most pressing education problems.
According to their website, their research and work include the areas of Educational Choice, K-12 Accountability, Teacher Quality and Undergraduate Education.
And while they do seem primarily focused on public school choice (which, while a good start, is only one part of the equation), they do recognize that a thriving system of choices- including charter schools- is an essential component of meaningful education reform.
Education Sector envisions a public education system where a wide range of education providers serve students’ diverse needs by supplying many educational options, a system where choices are as commonplace as they are in most other facets of American life and, importantly, a system that stresses high-quality education, equity, and public accountability.
So we congratulate Delegate Amundson on her new venture and offer our best wishes as she joins the education reform movement! We know that she has long been a supporter of vouchers for higher education (or TAG grants as they are called in Virginia), and we look forward to further discussions about educational choice can improve education for all students (not just those in college) here in Virginia.
American Solutions Video: Newt Gingrich & Al Sharpton
American Solutions has video up from this morning’s joint appearance by Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton on NBC’s Today Show talking about education reform. We had mentioned their efforts earlier today, and we applaud their efforts to bring about meaningful education reform.
American Solutions writes:
On most issues, we disagree strongly with Rev. Sharpton and the Obama Administration. But we believe when you can find common ground, it’s important to work together to achieve the common goal–especially when it’s something as important as our children’s future.
To his credit, President Obama supports unlimited charter schools. On this subject, and in other ways that we can work together to strengthen education in our country, we look forward to working with the President.
While we would go further than the President by supporting vouchers, Obama’s support of charter schools is noteworthy because of the strong opposition from many in his party.
At its core, this tour is about our children and their future. If we want to remain the safest, freest and most prosperous nation in the world, our children and grandchildren must have access to schools where they can learn to their fullest potential. And our schools must be accountable for results and be focused solely on learning and achievement.
This is about children, and their (and our) future. And we do agree that it is an area where people can find common ground to make needed reforms reality.
Monday School Choice Headlines
Last week it was DC parents… this week, another survey shows that Kentucky voters strongly support school choice.
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Teachers Unions versus Students in:
And we have talked before about school choice being much broader than a debate of public versus private, but about creating a wide range of options that allow families to find educational options that will best meet their children’s unique learning needs. In Colorado, school choice legislation is allowing that.
Obstacles to Change
We are all too familiar of the challenges faced by those of supporting substantive educational reforms. As this editorial from The Oklahoman notes, our system of public education is far too comfortable with the status quo and they usually are more likely to take the path of least resistance instead of endeavoring to find real changes that can improve educational opportunities for students.
Last month, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan charged that officials overseeing many of the nation’s poorest performing schools had taken “the path of least resistance” and opted out of making bold changes to improve student achievement. He’s right, and not just on the matter of turning around failing schools.
The path of least resistance — and its close friend status quo — is no stranger to the nation’s schools. How else to explain the prevailing seniority rules compensation system, the continued resistance to charter schools and the dearth of true school choice for children who desperately need it (including those in the president’s own backyard)?
And while we think it is great that Secretary Duncan is calling out members of the National Education Association (teacher’s union), we want to see whether he will truly stand up to them and fight for real change. Sadly the President’s unwillingness to fight to save the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program does not give us great hope.
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.
Let’s be the ones who make change
Last week we told you about two men who took it upon themselves to make a difference when it came to education.
In his own way, Roynell Young is carrying on the tradition of the late J. Patrick Rooney, who passed away last week at the age of 80.
Mr. Rooney was a testament to the power of one individual to make a difference. He didn’t accept mediocrity, and he didn’t settle for band-aid solutions to the problems he saw in our education system.
The Wall Street Journal remembered Mr. Rooney and his contribution to education last week.
During the 1980s, while other businessmen were hoping to tweak a badly broken public education system, Rooney advocated more parental choice. In 1991, his company launched a voucher program that enabled low-income families to send their children to private or parochial schools.
“When all families, no matter how poor, have the freedom to walk away from bad schools,” Rooney told us at the time, “competition will force the public schools to improve.” Today, the voucher program serves some 1,700 children in Indianapolis and has spawned similar programs nationwide that provide educational alternatives for more than 50,000 students.
It is an important lesson for us all.
Some people sit around and talk about change. Others step up to the plate and make change.
Let’s be the ones who make change.
“Shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition”
We are excited to see education- specifically school choice- become a key issue in the 2008 Presidential Election. Last night, Senator John McCain rallied the crowd with calls to radically reform education in this country, raising the question “Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school?”
He went on to state his intentions to shake up the system, introduce competition and empower parents in order to make sure our schools “answer to parents and students.”
Senator McCain is right, education is the “civil rights issue of this century,” and we owe it to all students to do more to provide real reforms, and not simply cover up our problems with old solutions that aren’t working.
Read more on Senator McCain’s position on education reform here.
We need innovation in education
Yesterday we posted Senator Kyl’s comments on the need for creative problem solving in education.
Cory Booker (mayor of Newark, NJ), John Doerr (partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers) and Ted Mitchell (chief executive of NewSchools Venture Fund and president of the California Board of Education) echo those sentiments and call for more innovation in education in their article, “Better education through innovation.”
The evidence for making a national commitment to innovation in educationis compelling. Today, many of the most promising solutions are emerging from entrepreneurial organizations that embrace freedom and accountability. Indeed, such social entrepreneurs represent a growing force. They have started nimble, typically nonprofit organizations that work in partnership with creative mayors and school superintendents.
Entrepreneurial charter schools such as KIPP, Uncommon Schools, Aspire, the Inner-City Education Foundation, the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools and Green Dot demonstrate what a single-minded focus on excellence can achieve with low-income students. These public schools, open to all students, are dedicated to the idea that college success and wide career choices must be a reality regardless of the ZIP Code of a child’s birth. And they are proving what’s possible, sending students from the poorest neighborhoods to college at rates typical of far more affluent communities.
Creative Problem Solving
US Senator Jon Kyl takes a look at the state of education in “Back to School: Politics and the Educational Process,” and urges creativity in solving today’s educational challenges.
A good education teaches people to think creatively in order to solve problems. Lawmakers should remember their school days and think creatively about new solutions to help today’s students. School vouchers have clearly worked for D.C., and I hope that lawmakers heed this success story and will support such school choice opportunities to even more students.
