Giving Thanks...
...For the parents who keep fighting for their children and students to get the best education the US can buy or reform
... For those policymakers who put kids first, and understand that educational results, not special interest groups, are their first priority
...For the philanthropists who support the work that helps the policymakers and parents so that real educational opportunity can thrive
...For the readers and the skeptics who at least care enough to want to know more and engage us everyday
...For our nation's founders and our leaders today who remember why we even have a national day of thanks...
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
A Charter A Day Keeps the... (Unions at Bay)?
5,000. Since the charter school movement began in 1992, dedicated parents and community activists have shown themselves to be hard-working, resilient and certainly persistent in their desire to create new school choices for their families and neighborhoods. How so? Consider this: for each work day during the past 18 years of the modern charter school movement, one new charter school has opened (and a few more were created on weekends!) What does that mean? Thanks to a lot of hard work, there are now more than 5,000 charter schools in America, a significant accomplishment. Charters serve nearly 2 million children, and when some states have more than 10 percent of their student population enrolled in charters, our movement is nothing to sneeze at. Let's just hope that the overwhelming, demonstrative success of charter schools does keep the forces of anti-reform teachers unions at bay... so we can continue the momentum for charter schools in America.
LAND OF THE FREE? Not if Bronx, NY Congressman Jose Serrano has his way. Thousands of children's futures depend on his actions to approve for Congressional passage the continuation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, and is apparently angered that this position begets him calls from all over the nation - from people of all stripes and walks of life, who want children to have what they deserve and rarely get in the District's traditional public schools - a good education that is also safe, also preparatory for life. But he claims it's not his job, he's opposed anyway, and besides, it was "imposed by Congressional Republicans". No, Sir, it was not. Think again...
SWEET HOME ALABAMA? Maybe that can become the truth for thousands of Alabama moms and dads who want their children to have better opportunities, too. One of the final 10 states without a charter law ever (11 if you count Mississippi, whose law expired this year!), the Cotton State is seeing some renewed interest with all the hype in the press – and thankfully Alabama's Governor Riley sees an opening, and is pushing his state's legislators to take up the debate, saying "This gives us an opportunity to do something that 40 states say has made a tremendous difference in the quality of education. I think it would be almost unconscionable for us to turn our back on an opportunity to build a truly world-class great school system in the state of Alabama." But a union leader has called charters a "fad", inaccurately identified them as operating as private schools and vowed to fight any attempt to bring them to Alabama.
WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE? How is it possible that after a nationally respected columnist writes a story about neighborhood violence affecting charter students whose school receives no protection from DC police (as other DC schools do) nothing has been done to assure the safety of the students? Friendship Collegiate, a focused and driven school motivating its students to not only see college in their future but ensure that it is, has been plagued by external violence spilling over from neighborhood gangs. The city has been slow to respond, though officers have stepped up patrols in the area. But where are the officers to patrol the District's second largest high school? "It's clearly a serious problem," says DC Councilman Phil Mendelson. "In my view, a public school is entitled to public safety protection, regardless of whether it is a DCPS public school or a public charter school." How much longer will these students be distracted because of an inequity that could be easily remedied?
