SUBSIDIZING FAILURE. Defenders of the status quo will always tell you that the lack of student achievement in the United States can be directly tied to a lack of funding or an overabundance of testing. Ironically, test results are the proof in the proverbial pudding, showing that even in school districts flush with additional cash - such as Oakland, CA, which spends more than $16,000 per student all told - continue to be mired in failure after all the bills are paid. "The American public has been conned into believing that public schools need more money. Have you ever met a public school administrator who said they have enough money?" says Ben Chavis, founder of the wildly successful American Indian Public Charter School. "Next time you hear school officials or politicians begging for more money, ask them how large the district's budget is and how many students are enrolled in their district. Then you do the math. After all, it's your money they want to take." (Be sure to join CER and Ben Chavis for our inaugural event as we kick off our new NO NONSENSE series of discussions about education reform next Tuesday the 22nd in DC.)
UNIONS
FOR THE KIDS. 26,000 Washington State students will finally head back to school today after having the past 3 weeks of instruction called off thanks to a local teachers union strike. "Our members felt strongly enough for our students," union president Lisa Brackin Johnson said. "We had to take the stand." So, claiming to fight in the best interests of their students, teachers walked off the job to demand class size restrictions, a pay raise based only on experience - not performance or student achievement - and fewer meeting obligations throughout the year. More pay for less work, and no accountability for doing a better job. That's progress?
LOSING THE BATTLE, WINNING THE WAR. DC's feisty Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee may not be getting her coveted tenure destroyer contract with the teachers union, but she may just be chipping away a huge chunk of the union's armor by gaining more ability for the District to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom and, more importantly, from students' path to achievement. "...We have to move out of the idea that a teaching job is a right... And unless you can show you are doing positive things for kids, you cannot have the privilege of teaching," said Rhee earlier this summer. The union, however, is giving up an opportunity to have their members treated as true professionals and a chance for DC's highest performing teachers to make upwards of $130,000 a year. Whose best interests are being considered in this scenario?
DISSERVICE. And in Alabama, just as in New York and Los Angeles, folks are waking up to the true harm teacher tenure is placing in the way of their kids' educational future. When a convicted sex offender is able to continue to receive a teaching salary, the ironclad protections offered by teachers unions cannot go unquestioned. An editorial in the Montgomery Advertiser points to the real rub when it says, "Achieving meaningful tenure reform - which only the incompetent or the corrupt should fear - will be a tremendous fight in the Legislature, where the Alabama Education Association wields great influence. Nevertheless, it is a fight that must be waged."
CHARTERS
TOUGH. Gwinnett County Schools are claiming "tough times" have led them to question the constitutionality of state-mandated local reserves being used in a local charter school hurt by severe budget cuts, saying that their students are suffering. They are suing the Peach State in response. Gwinnett may be drawing hope from the purely political decision against charters handed down from a Florida Appeals Court late last year, but they should be looking at a Colorado ruling from the spring which upheld the rights of its state charter school authorizer. "We fund public schools at a certain level," Ben Scafadi, chairman of the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, said. "I don't see why charter public schools should be treated dramatically less favorably.
THE GOOD FIGHT. In another charter-related lawsuit, Arizona is being taken to court over its inequitable funding of public education by parents who say that each child should be guaranteed a uniform education as outlined in the state Constitution, a right not upheld in Arizona charters, as well as many conventional public schools, where the education of each child is not funded equally. Unfairly, some public schools receive more funding than others, allowing them to provide smaller classes, higher teacher pay and "provide more transportation, offer more courses and supplies, and build better facilities than other lower-funded public schools".
THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING. Poor Marc Dann. Even though he no longer presides over the Buckeye State as Attorney General, his decision to go after charters like a one-man accountability machine keeps coming back to bite him. A court of appeals has yet again ruled that he and his office overstepped their authority and acted as a de facto Department of Education in seeking to shut down charters he believed weren't performing properly. "We hope this is the end of it. It makes it hard for the school to concentrate on its mission to educate kids," said Catherine West of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
In Other News...
Be sure to mark your calendars for two big upcoming events: First, on September 24th, a rally for educational opportunities for kids in Michigan featuring CER Distinguished Fellow Kevin Chavous. Then, September 30th promises to bring a true demonstration of support for the continuation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program by folks from all across the country on Capitol Hill. Join us!
