Choice in L.A. and editorial board support for school choice?
Sorry no new posts yesterday- we were in Richmond most of the day for a wonderful meeting of many of our coalition partners to update everyone on school choice efforts in Virginia. We greatly appreciate everyone taking the time to attend and participate- and a special thank you to those folks who drove several hours to attend the meeting. We did share some updates on Twitter yesterday- if you aren’t following us already, we hope you will check it out!
We do have some very exciting projects that we’ll be announcing in the coming weeks, so we hope you encourage you to stay tuned.
In other news, a few headlines from around the country on the education reform front:
The Press-Register: ACT results show the need for choice
It’s about time that Alabama and Mississippi provided educational alternatives for minorities who live in low-income urban centers.
School choice programs have taken root in Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and other cities. In some cities, children from poor families can use publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools. Thirty-nine states have charter schools — independent public schools that have been freed from most bureaucratic regulations.
Polls show most blacks support school choice, including voucher programs. Again, this isn’t surprising, given that many black children are trapped in failing public schools.
The shame is that Alabama and Mississippi are in the minority of states that provide little or no choice for parents. Alabama doesn’t even allow charter schools. Mississippi’s charter school law, which severely restricted charters, expired in July.
Consumer choice drives competition, innovation and quality in the private sector. Parental choice would shake up the education establishment and become a powerful force for change.
Alabama and Mississippi need to unleash that force for the benefit of students who are falling by the wayside in the current system.
The Citizen-Times: Shrink achievement gap through choice in education
Waiting lists are a familiar theme for North Carolina’s public charter schools, which currently remain capped at 100 despite waiting lists reportedly in excess of 15,000 families. While all public charter schools in Buncombe County reached expected growth goals last year, the county still has only three public charters. The Obama administration’s strong endorsement of public charter schools, particularly those targeting the achievement gap, compels North Carolina to demonstrate progressive charter school policies to compete for federal funding. More importantly, the state has a moral obligation to its children, especially those from poor and working-class families.
All in all, it should come as no surprise that North Carolina parents–regardless of race or income–are increasingly concerned about their children’s education. After all, a sound educational system is the cornerstone of a sound economy. Until our state embraces true school reform, you can expect to see a continued push for more parental school choice and quality options for all children in North Carolina.
Los Angeles Times: Vote could open 250 L.A. schools to outside operators
In a startling acknowledgment that the Los Angeles school system cannot improve enough schools on its own, the city Board of Education approved a plan Tuesday that could turn over 250 campuses — including 50 new multimillion-dollar facilities — to charter groups and other outside operators.
The plan, approved on a 6-1 vote, gives Supt. Ramon C. Cortines the power to recommend the best option to run some of the worst-performing schools in the city as well as the newest campuses. Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte dissented.
The vote occurred after a tense, nearly four-hour debate during which supporters characterized the resolution as a moral imperative. Foes called it illegal, illogical and improper.
The action signals a historic turning point for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has struggled for decades to boost student achievement. District officials and others have said their ability to achieve more than incremental progress is hindered by the powerful teachers union, whose contract makes it nearly impossible to fire ineffective tenured teachers. Union leaders blame a district bureaucracy that they say fails to include teachers in “top-down reforms.”
Saying No to the Status Quo
So we know that this summer we’ve been doing a lot of blogging about school choice news from around the country. But that doesn’t mean are just sitting back and accepting the status quo here in Virginia. As Virginia students get ready to head back to school, we wanted to take a quick moment to update you on some of the things we’ve been working on here at School Choice Virginia as well.
We have had a busy summer, growing our coalition of school choice supporters across the Commonwealth. Our friends from the Alliance for School Choice have made some great introductions as well, and through them, we’ve been connecting with a number of great organizations and associations throughout Virginia. As we are always looking to expand our coalition, we look forward to involving these groups in our efforts and will continue our outreach to new groups as well. If you or an organization you represent would like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you!
As many of you have also noticed, we’ve been expanding our presence online this summer as well. Many of you have already joined us on Facebook, and just this month we have also joined Twitter- where you can follow all the latest news and information. If you aren’t already receiving our E-newsletters, we invite you to take a moment to sign up online. As well as our online presence, we’ve worked to keep school choice and education reform in the news as well. Recent stories in the Richmond Times Dispatch and The New Dominion underscore the need for education reforms in the Commonwealth.
In addition, Virginia’s state-wide and House of Delegates elections are heating up, so we are watching the candidates closely on their positions on education reform and school choice. We have noted that both candidates for Governor have been talking about charter schools, and we will continue to post news and information here on the blog, and invite you to share any news from any of the candidates in Virginia related to education.
Tomorrow we’ll be meeting with many of our coalition partners in Richmond as we gear up for the fall. We have lots of exciting projects in store, so we hope you’ll check back often to find out all the details!
Now on Twitter!
We’re all about getting our message out in whatever way we can.
Many of you (almost 900 and counting!) already follow us on Facebook, and now we’ve made the leap over to Twitter as well.
For those of you who use Twitter, we invite you to follow us at http://twitter.com/SchoolChoiceVA.
We’re just getting started, but we hope you’ll stop by and check us out!
