Vol. 4, No. 30
July 30, 2002

POLLS: A recent poll by the Black America's Political Action Committee (BAMPAC) produced results that bolster choice advocates -- a majority of blacks want the ability to choose their children's schools. Sixty-three percent of respondents said that if given the choice they would remove their children from traditional public schools and enroll them in charter or private schools. Most African American parents are tired of efforts that aim to fix the existing public school system without making any fundamental changes. In testimony last week before the U.S. House of Representatives' education committee, Cleveland super-mom Roberta Kitchen explained just why that is: "I didn't have time to wait for the school system to get itself together.... I could not help a failing system, but I could help my children."

REFORM: If anyone ever needed proof that educational choice -- charters, private schools, public school choice -- forces traditional districts to change for the better, they need look no further than Detroit. Last week the Detroit News reported on a $1.5 million ad campaign by Detroit Public Schools intended to get the word out about new programs to give parents what they want for their kids, including new preschool and kindergarten programs and a new summer reading initiative. The impetus behind this, as reported in the Detroit News, is competition: "A public relations program . . . is considered a necessity in many big and small public school districts as they compete with charter, religious and private schools for students and the state-aid dollars that come with them." Unfortunately, it's not PR that's lacking in Detroit but substantive change that effects more than a handful of students. It's great they're taking notice of reforms that are drawing families, but it's time for the district to do something really substantive. When the district pulls two charters for political reasons, as it did recently, it feeds a perception that the proposed changes are more smoke that substance.

UNIONS: Those who follow education unions know that union employees tend to make more money than members. It's no surprise, then, to hear that education union leaders in Minnesota occupy 10 of the 20 top-paying union jobs in the state. It's also not surprising that 100 of the 144 employees of Education Minnesota -- the product of a 1998 merger of the state's NEA and AFT affiliates -- make more than the $42,000 average salary of the state's teachers. This makes perfect sense to union president Judy Schaubach, and we agree with her reasoning: "We have highly educated people doing complex tasks. The competition for those types of people across the nation is stiff.... We want highly qualified people working on behalf of our members. It's what our members expect." You see, Schaubach realizes that if you want the best employees, you have to pay them competitively. One might say you have to pay them according to their merits. In fact, one might call it "merit-based pay." That makes sense. So why, in light of the union's firm grasp of the competition concept, does it oppose merit pay for its teachers? That, unfortunately, does not make sense.

ACCOUNTABILITY: High-stakes tests are not new to many states. For several years now students have been taking the alphabet soup gamut of tests nationwide as a dry run for when the tests would start to count to advance a grade or graduate. Recent results are not encouraging. In Massachusetts, 24 percent of the 64,000 students set to graduate in 2003 failed the English and math portions of the MCAS. Now, predictably, just when the tests will start to count, states are taking the fall-back position, lowering the bar (read: expectations) and in some cases just ignoring the law and setting their own standards for graduation. In Virginia, for example, if the state board has its way, high school students who fail to achieve the minimum passing score might be able to use credit from other tests to graduate. The passage of the federal education law mandating testing was a means to bring accountability back to schools and teaching, but it appears now that honest assessment of children's academic performance has become a casualty.

CHARTERS: Organizers of 11 new Indiana charter schools set to open next month breathed a sigh of relief last week when approximately $392,000 in start-up funds was released by the State Department of Finance. The organizers, whose applications were approved as early as February 2002, have been fighting since then with the state DOE over language in the charter law that relates to start-up funding. Six months later, and only after Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter stepped in and found that it was the state's responsibility to release the funds, charter school operators will now be able to more effectively plan their budgets, hire teachers, and purchase much-needed supplies. This is great news for the charters opening this fall, but what's going to happen when a new round of applications are approved for next year? State policymakers need to work this year to clarify the funding provisions in the law and ensure that operators of a new batch of schools won't have to wait until the last minute to receive resources that are committed for their programs.

CHARTERS II: Dayton, Ohio may have as much as 20 percent of its student population in charter schools this fall, as the city prepares for 19 new charter schools with the capacity to serve as many as 5,500 students. The move toward charters was spurred by parents and the business community who were frustrated with the district's lack of academic progress and overspending, and was aided by the startup efforts of the Fordham Foundation. The district, which had been losing enrollment for a decade, had allowed its spending on operations to outpace its spending on instruction, creating a $16 million deficit. The infusion of charter schools changed that focus. In the past two years the district has closed eight schools and improved its fiscal operations, including a return to spending a majority of its budget on instruction. The business community is now pushing the district to allow a charter high school that serves the general population and to make a building available for that school. Unfortunately, this proposal has met its share of obstacles.

Meanwhile, the city of St. Louis will see the opening of the new YouthBuild St. Louis Charter High School, spurred by the success of the Construction Careers Center, a partnership with the building trades and construction industry that opened last year. The new YouthBuild charter school will provide a high school education combined with construction career training to high school dropouts. One of the school's aims is to help fill the roughly 20,000 to 30,000 St. Louis construction job vacancies expected in the next five years as current workers retire. Also, across the river in Illinois, the Tomorrow's Builders Charter School will open this fall with a similar mission and aim.

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