February 23, 2000

        The Vaughn Next Century Charter school is truly the "little school that could." Now it will be the "bigger school that can do more." Vaughn has experience in rejuvenating communities and is currently building a new center to house middle school students which will aid in easing overcrowding in the greater Los Angeles school district. They've also celebrated the addition of a health and community center and new library over the last few years. "We figured out a way to build new schools faster, cheaper and better," Vaughn Principal Yvonne Chan told the LA Times. "We built one building and then started digging for another."

        Teacher tenure is on the ropes in Georgia. Governor Roy Barnes is attempting to move a bill through the Senate (it already passed the House) to remove the kind of iron-clad job protection that is unique to the teaching profession. Rather, the bill will allow local principals to work with teachers to evaluate and reward them as professionals for their accomplishments. Some in Georgia would prefer the Governor focus almost exclusively on amending the state's charter school law, which done the right way, allows such performance-based appraisals and more. That kind of competition might spark the traditional schools to follow suit, and be less costly and more likely to occur than a bill that requires the consent of a union-backed legislature.

        According to the Associated Press, nine mathematicians who helped create new state guidelines for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System resigned from the state's Mathematics Curriculum Framework Revision Panel last week, saying the Department of Education has ignored their concerns over curriculum revisions. The panel submitted their guidelines for public comment in September and it created more response than any other framework since the 1993 Education Reform Act. The state department then reworked the guidelines, which prompted this decision.

        Some Denver leaders took umbrage with the CER Newswire of February 1st, which applauded Denver Superintendent Chip Zullinger for having the foresight to start his own charter schools. In reality, Zullinger is using the "charter" label to his advantage. Denver Public Schools (DPS) would still control the charters and they would still be under most DPS guidelines. These schools would simply give the district a place to dump their worst off kids, while allowing the district to claim they embrace charters. Let's hope that’s simply an opinion, and not reality.

        A comment on Election 2000 politics: Whether one be left, right or center, it's hard to excuse the comments of New York Senate Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who astonished even the New Yorker Magazine by her statement that:

"I think that the real issue ought to be who cares about the children of New York City, and who will work day in and day out to advance the interests of the education system."

The problem? Reformers argue that the interests of the system and the children are most often NOT compatible. Then again, someone who has keynoted to thunderous applause the conventions of the National PTA, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers may not always be pressed to focus on children first. Let's hope for evidence to the contrary.

        In other news, the private company TesseracT, formerly known as EAI, was "de-listed" from the stock market because its assets fell below accepted minimums. TesseracT acquired several different educational ventures over the last few years, but never earned a significant share of the charter school movement (it operates about 15 schools) after it's problems in Baltimore and Hartford some years back. It plans to do some restructuring, but it's unclear whether all of its programs will continue. Not all companies are good and not all organizations can operate public school ventures well. The private sector is an outside arbiter of financial viability that can help the public sector gauge the likely success of companies. We're glad for this lesson in accountability.

        Yesterday, Eduventures.com, Inc. announced that it had purchased the highly regarded Education Industry Report from founder John McLaughlin, who will continue to consult and advice industry executives about the changing landscape in K-12 education.

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The CER Newswire is published by The Center for Education Reform, the nation's leading authority on school reform. CER is dedicated to making schools better for America's children by improving educational access and excellence for all. CER works with parents, teachers and policymakers to advance meaningful education improvement initiatives.

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