Patrick Henry Elementary School of Science and Arts Community Update Meeting
We told you about the Patrick Henry Charter School in Richmond a few months ago. For more information, we encourage you to attend the latest update meeting to be held tomorrow, Thursday, March 5th.
Patrick Henry Elementary School of Science and Arts
Community Update Meeting
THURSDAY, MARCH 5th 8:00 p.m.
3411 Semmes Ave.
Richmond, VA 23225
When are you opening?
How do I apply?
Are we really a “year round school?”
What is an “outdoor classroom?”
How can I support the school?
Find out the answers to all of your burning questions! Refreshments will be provided.
Please RSVP to:
Antione Green, Vice-President antionegreen3@hotmail.com or
Jessica Hoffa, Secretary jesshoffa@cavtel.net
The Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts
New Meeting Times!
Every Thursday at 8:00 p.m.
The Patrick Henry Building
3411 Semmes Ave.
Richmond, VA 23225
Thomas Jefferson Institute Reports “Black Neighborhoods Support More Parental Options”
One of our partners here at School Choice Virgina, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, recently announced the results of a survey they conducted with the Black Alliance for Educational Options on the issue of school choice.
Their survey was conducted with more than 2,200 voters in majority African-American voting precincts in the Petersburg, Richmond and Norfolk areas of Virginia. The results, released last week, show that more than 76% of the voters in these areas support school choice for parents.
Support for other educational options, including tax credits, charter schools and scholarships for students with disabilities, is significant among parents and non-parents.
To view the City-by-City results of the survey, click here.
As we have noted before, school choice is an issue that crosses partisan and racial lines. We hope that the legislators who represent these districts will take note of the results of this survey and listen to their constituents when school choice issues come before them in the upcoming General Assembly session.
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.
“Home” Schooling
Over at Bacon’s Rebellion, Jim Bacon writes about his weekend experience visiting the home school expo held in Richmond.
I left with the notion that home schooling is the future of education in Virginia. While public schools are hamstrung by bureaucracy, home schoolers are experimenting and innovating like mad. Home schoolers are devising new curricula and new pedagogies. They’re embracing new technologies. They’re developing new models for sharing knowledge. And they’re availing themselves of community resources rather than recreating everything from libraries to sports facilities. Home schoolers have no need to invest in bricks and mortar. The community is their classroom.
As we have noted before, home schooling is one choice that benefits many families in Virginia and across the country. And it is a trend that is growing.
We need to continue to encourage options for families, including home schooling, in order for parents and students to determine the educational environment that will best meet their own needs.
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.
School Choice Virginia Board Member Keith West Discusses Charter Schools
Last week, we noted the controversy in Richmond surrounding the proposal to open a charter elementary school in Richmond City.
In Sunday’s Richmond Times Dispatch, School Choice Virginia Board member Keith West gives us more insight on the situation in his column, “Original Contract Created a Charter School in Name Only.”
To my surprise and to its credit, the School Board of Richmond voted in May to approve an application for a charter elementary school to be located in the vacant Patrick Henry school building.
I was surprised because the groups opposed to charters are powerful and waged an all-out campaign against it. Board members had to make tough decisions, knowing they would be alienating voters either way. I believe we made the right choice, because the parents of Richmond need more choices for their children’s education.
He continues:
The very point of a charter school is to end up with something different. Even in a district with the highest-performing public schools, there might be a need for charter. No school can be all things to all people.
Exactly.
Finally, Keith asks:
But there is more than one way of doing things, and without experimentation, there will be no progress. The School Board on this point needs to make a leap of faith. We must assume competence given no evidence to the contrary.
The leap is not actually that great. The teachers will all be certified and the curriculum will be state-approved. Most important, the parents will be involved. Is there any stronger accountability than concerned parents?
Accountability. Parental involvement. And a chance for success. Don’t we owe Virginia’s students that chance?
Charter schools providing options
Earlier this week we discussed the situation in Richmond over the proposed charter elementary school. As we have noted, thousands of students all across the country are already benefitting from charter schools. Unfortunately for Virginia families, education bureaucrats are still standing in the way of those types of choices.
Some charter school headlines from across the country:
New Chandler charter has kids aiming high (Arizona):
Parent Lynn Leih said she researched Paragon’s sister schools and liked that they ranked high on statewide standard tests, along with the emphasis on math, science and technology. She enrolled her third-grader, Joshua, who attended a traditional public school, and her kindergartner, Jonathan.
“He’s already learning Spanish,” the mother said. “It’s not that we didn’t like the (public) elementary school, but this was an opportunity for a more advanced education.”
Charter school focuses on individuals (Indiana):
“All of these students, pretty much, at some point were turned off to the idea of learning,” Lukens said. Learning was “something that was done to them, so we want to help them love learning again.”
Charter school can improve education for all (Texas):
There are 196 charter schools operating throughout the state in predominately urban areas. Many have been in business since 1996. Historically, competition from charter schools has encouraged higher standards in traditional public schools. The charter school model is one of the most important advances in public education, and we feel it is absolutely the most appropriate model for this area of Texas, public education and the kids who will attend from the designated geographic boundaries. We feel charter schools improve public education by providing competition as well as a new venue to test new theories and implement the best practices for public schools.
Charter school offers enrichment classes (New Mexico):
Some Cottonwood Valley Charter School students have to answer those questions as part of “The Big Idea,” one of five new enrichment classes. This year, Cottonwood offered an enrichment program for its sixth- through eighth-graders.
More on “When a choice isn’t really a choice”
Earlier we wrote about the situation going on in Richmond over the attempts to approve a charter school that will actually be a real choice for students.
Jim Bacon and Norm Leahy over at Bacon’s Rebellion take a closer look at the situation going on in this series of blog posts.
Jim notes:
As Times-Dispatch columnist Barton Hinkle points out, there are about 4,200 charter schools across the United States. Only three are located in Virginia. Support for vouchers, an even more radical alternative to charter schools, is spreading. Opponents, he suggests aren’t worried that the school might fail — “they’re petrified that it might succeed.” In the words of one school board member, “By allowing this group to proceed, it would open the door for any other group that wants to create a school.”
How sad when the fear of a school succeeding stops us from giving children a chance for a better education.
Is that what we want for Virginia’s students?
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.
