Sad but true: The other day, one of Louisiana’s statewide teachers unions tweeted that the Black Alliance for Educational Options, the stand-up school choice group, supports “KKK vouchers.” It subsequently tweeted, “Tell everyone you know.” (Details here.)
Even sadder but true: This wasn’t an isolated event. In recent months, critics of school choice and education reform have time and again made similar statements and claims – trying to tie Florida’s school accountability system to young black men who murder in Miami, for instance, and in Alabama, trying to link charter schools to gays and Muslims.
But this is also sad but true: Reform supporters sometimes go way too far, too.
Late last week, the Sunshine State News published a story about two Haitian-American Democratic lawmakers in South Florida, both strong backers of school choice, who narrowly lost primary races to anti-choice Democrats. The story quoted, at length, an unnamed political consultant who sounded sympathetic to the arguments raised by school choice supporters. He made fair points about the influence of the teachers union in the Democratic Party; about racial tensions that rise with Democrats and school choice; about a double standard with party leaders when Dems accuse other Dems of voter fraud. But then he said this:
“It’s a kind of ethnic cleansing of the Democratic Party,” he said, according to the report, “centered on the interests of the teachers’ unions.”
School choice critics may often be wrong; their arguments may at times be distorted and inconsistent. But to brand their motivations with a term that evokes Rwanda and Bosnia is more than off-key. It’s repulsive. It’s also a distraction and counterproductive.
I’m floored by extreme statements from ed reform critics. In the past couple of months alone, a leading Florida parents group accused state education officials of using the school accountability system to purposely “hurt children”; a left-wing blogger described John E. Coons, a Berkeley law professor and redefinED co-host, as a “John Birch Society type” because of his support for parental school choice; and other critics used fringe blogs and mainstream newspapers alike to shamelessly tar Northwestern University economist David Figlio, a meticulous education researcher who is not only widely respected by fellow researchers on all sides of the school choice debate but is so highly regarded beyond the world of wonkery that he was cited as a prime example of this state’s “brain drain” when he left the University of Florida. I’m further stumped by how such statements are rarely challenged by mainstream media, and by how more thoughtful critics simply shrug and look the other way.
Attacks like these make me want to say, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” But then, at less regular intervals, statements like the ethnic cleansing quote come up and knock reformers off the high road. I’m left with a less satisfying response: “Can’t we all just get along?”
More than 5,600 charter schools are celebrating National Charter Schools Week this week, but none are in Alabama. Barring a miracle, there won’t be any in the near future, either.
The Alabama state senate whiffed last week on a historic opportunity to finally bring charter schools to one of the last states without any. It took an initially modest bill that had already been downsized in earlier rounds of legislating and proceeded to make it a joke.
“As watered down as a glass of iced tea left to sit in Alabama’s summer sun,” the Birmingham News editorialized this week.
The original bill would have allowed up to 50 charters statewide. What passed last week reduced the cap to 20. It also limited charters to the four biggest cities; allowed only the conversion of existing, low-performing schools into charters; gave veto power to the local superintendent or any member of the local legislative delegation; and provided for no appeals process. In other words, it makes charter schools in Alabama pretty much impossible.
The House could revive the bill, but that appears unlikely.
What a shame for the students of Alabama. This year's Education Week rankings put Alabama at No. 44 among the 50 states in K-12 academic achievement. To be sure, the state has made some recent moves in the right direction by beefing up standards and accountability. But they're not enough. Alabama students deserve to benefit from the kinds of expanded school choice offerings that have helped students across the nation. (more…)
A bill to finally bring charter schools to Alabama looked like a slam dunk at the start of that state’s legislative session. But after a barrage of negative attacks, intense lobbying by the state teachers union and a stealth ad campaign that has tried to link charter schools to gays, lesbians, Muslims and President Obama, its odds of passage are no longer so good, said a veteran political reporter.
“The intent was to derail the legislation,” reporter Bill Britt told redefinED in the podcast interview below. “And amazingly enough, through those efforts and the efforts of the AEA (the Alabama Education Association), the charter school bill in Alabama is barely on life support.”
The bill is modest. It initially sought to allow up to 50 charter schools statewide, a cap that was dropped to 20 in the face of opposition. But, Britt said, even that is too many for the AEA, which views charters as a threat to its membership and power – power already curtailed by the rise of a strong Republican majority in the legislature. “It was always said that the Alabama Democratic Party was a wholly owned subsidiary of the AEA,” said Britt, who runs the online Alabama Political Reporter. “And for the most part, that’s been true.”
Britt said he can’t prove the AEA is behind the stealth campaign, which has used a series of shadowy, strategically placed facebook ads to portray charter schools as a left-wing plot. But he said it’s “highly possible” that paid surrogates, acting on the AEA’s behalf, are.
Whoever’s behind it, he said, it’s working.
“The bill has gone through so many iterations and been weakened so much (that) now, if you believe their thoughts or not, Republicans are saying, ‘Why should I put my political career in jeopardy and have the AEA coming after me or financing my opponent, for a weak bill? A bill that really doesn’t accomplish what we set out to do?’ “ Britt said. “There are a lot of Republicans that have begun to waver on the whole notion of fighting for charter schools.”
Somebody in Alabama is so desperately scared of school choice, they’ve launched a stealth campaign to make school choice seem scary. Their goal: to tarnish charter schools by linking them to gays, lesbians, Muslims, Democrats, abortions – and if that’s still not frightening enough – to Michelle Rhee and President Obama.
The horror that would spawn such a reaction? The Education Options Act of 2012, a bill now being considered by the Alabama Legislature. It would allow up to 20 charter schools statewide (down from 50 initially) and only in school districts with persistently low-performing schools. Florida, by comparison, has more than 400 charter schools in dozens of districts, enrolling 175,000 students.
But in Alabama – one of the few states left without any charter schools – even a handful, apparently, is apocalyptic enough to throw everything against the wall. In recent weeks, somebody who leaves no obvious fingerprints has posted a series of fleeting, shadowy facebook ads designed, apparently, to make folks think charter schools are a radical, left-wing conspiracy.
Left-wing conspiracy? The darkly creative minds behind the ads should at least get credit for attempting to upend the dominant narrative about school choice – that it’s a right-wing conspiracy. One ad suggests charter schools will protect gay and lesbian kids who are bullied in Alabama schools. Another says “Coming to Alabama soon: Barack Obama Charter School. Support our President and Charter Schools.” Yet others raise the specter of Muslim charter schools - and we all know what that means, don’t we?
“If you believe the advertising on Facebook, Gay/Lesbian and Muslim matriculation will be what Alabama parents have to look forward to if the Education Options Act of 2012 becomes law,” Bill Britt with the Alabama Political Reporter, an alternative online news source, wrote recently. “This seems silly on its face but it is nevertheless effective in inciting fear and prejudice.” (more…)
