Richard Kahlenberg and Halley Potter
Valerie Strauss recently interviewed Richard Kahlenberg and Halley Potter about their book, “A Smarter Charter.” Kahlenberg and Potter use the model of charter schools envisioned by former teachers union leader Albert Shanker as a foil for the current charter movement.
They argue that since 1988, the charter concept has been “hijacked by conservatives” who oppose unionization and have “empowered management rather than teachers.”
While it’s nice to think the teacher unions supported charters before charters were cool, and while Shanker clearly was an early supporter of such a concept, the idea did not begin with him. The intellectual roots of charter schools trace to the 1960s, and John E. Coons, a professor emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley (and contributor to this blog) has been writing about the idea since the early ’70s.
At any rate, the beauty of charter schools is that they can be different things for different people. The idea is not conservative or liberal. There is no indication that having a union, or not, is of any benefit, or detriment, to a school. While empowering teachers and drawing diverse student populations are laudable goals, there is no right way to operate a charter, as long as it gets good results. Many do, even some that have “deviated from the Shanker vision.”
Grade: Needs Improvement
Charter school parents
The New York Times looked into the methods employed by Success Academy charter schools to earn high marks on student assessments. Some blogs seized on incendiary anecdotes like students who allegedly wet themselves because they were too scared to ask permission to use the bathroom during tests.
But one mom came to the defense of the school, arguing that Success Academy works for her kid. Ariela Rozman wrote:
In all seriousness, though, no doubt there are parents who feel that Success’ approach to teaching and learning is not a good match for their child. No one should press these parents to send their children to such a school—nor should they be forced to praise teaching methods with which they disagree.
Right. No one is forced to send their child to Success Academy. No one is required to like the school either. Parents have a right to choose if the school, and its methods, are the right fit for their own child.
Grade: Satisfactory
Center for Popular Democracy and Tennessee Teachers Association
A school voucher bill has been dubbed “inevitable” in Tennessee, so the opposition is reminding politicians of a two-month-old poll claiming school choice isn’t a high priority for voters. The poll, paid for by the Center for Popular Democracy (a social justice and pro-public school organization) and conducted by GBA Strategies, purports to show voters would rather have more oversight and regulation of charter schools than more school choice.
The Tennessee Teachers Association even uses the poll in a press release to argue that, “Tennesseans do not care about school choice.”
Putting aside the limitations of the way the poll framed the issues, these advocacy organizations miss the big picture. If parents really didn’t want school choice, districts wouldn’t be worrying about the effects of charter school enrollment growth, as the Nashville Tennessean put it last year, “significantly outpacing the rest of Metro schools.” Parents and students seem to be voting with their feet.
Grade: Needs Improvement
