During a 1916 football game between Georgia Tech and Cumberland, Georgia Tech coach John Heisman famously urged his players on to victory- “You're doing all right, team, we're ahead. But you just can't tell what those Cumberland players have up their sleeves. They may spring a surprise. Be alert, men! Hit 'em clean, but hit 'em hard!” Cumberland committed 15 turnovers in the game and had one of their players getting tackled for a six-yard loss on an attempt at an offensive rush declared their “play of the game.” Georgia Tech won the game 222 to 0.
This story has repeatedly come to mind repeatedly over the last decade while reading stories about the competition between surging Florida and floundering New York.
The New York Post reports that New York City Schools will spend $42,000 per student this year. Spending $840,000 on a classroom of 20 fourth graders might seem a bit pricey, especially given that judging on their 2024 NAEP performance, nine of them will be reading at “below basic.” New Yorkers must pay sky-high taxes to support the world’s most expensive illiteracy generator/job programs, which is one of the reasons so many New Yorkers keep becoming Floridians. Now, however, it isn’t just people and companies migrating from New York to Florida; New York’s Success Academy schools are also heading south.
Through the wizardry of Stanford’s Educational Opportunity Project graph generator, I’ve placed New York Success Academies (Marked 1-7) in the graph for the overall state of Florida for academic proficiency. Schools are dots; green dots are higher than average, blue below average, etc.
You don’t see many high-poverty schools (graph runs from low poverty on the right to high poverty on the left) with students scoring 3ish grade levels above average, but that is exactly what Success Academy has consistently delivered in New York.
Being a rational human, you might think that New York policymakers would be falling over themselves to get as many Success Academies operating as possible, but that is just you being silly again. New York lawmakers maintain a statewide cap on the number of charter schools. Apparently, New York lawmakers feel the need to keep safe from, well, learning.
Florida, on the other hand, does not have a cap on charter schools. Rather than treating highly successful schools specializing in educating disadvantaged students as a public menace, Florida is rolling out the red carpet for highly effective school models. Success Academy plans to open 40 schools in Florida over the next 10 years, something which New York law prohibits.
Is it too much? Too much winning? No, Florida, you have to win more! Or to paraphrase Coach Heisman “You're doing all right, Florida; you’re ahead. But you just can't tell what those New Yorkers have up their sleeves. They may spring a surprise. Be alert, men! Hit 'em clean, but hit 'em hard!” Capitalizing on the abject folly of New York policymakers is hitting both clean and hard.
Florida's decade-long efforts to recruit more high-quality charter school operators to the state could be on the verge of a major breakthrough.
Tomorrow, the state Board of Education is set to consider an application from New York-based Success Academy as a designated Schools of Hope operator.
The Schools of Hope program was created in 2017 to help draw more high-performing charter school organizations to the Sunshine State. It scored a few successes, helping bring IDEA Public Schools to Jacksonville and Tampa, as well as KIPP to Miami.
Florida education leaders had for years bemoaned that major national nonprofit charter networks with strong track records of improving outcomes for low-income students had largely steered clear of the nation's third-largest state, despite a steadily growing charter school sector that now enrolls nearly 400,000 students.
One of the leaders working to make the state more friendly to top charter operators was then-state legislator Manny Diaz Jr., who is now the state's education commissioner.
Success fits the profile of operators Florida has long hoped to attract. Its schools boast the best math achievement in New York State while serving a student population of predominantly low-income children of color. All of its graduates get accepted to four-year colleges. The network is known for a relentless commitment to high expectations and celebrated efforts to deliver an academically demanding curriculum at scale.
But it's never opened a school outside New York City.
That may be about to change.
"We are immensely excited at the prospect of bringing our success to Florida and look forward to exploring what we can accomplish together, given that Florida is a national leader in educational choice, as the Schools of Hope program demonstrates," Success Academy's founder, Eva Moskowitz, wrote in a cover letter accompanying its Hope application. "Success believes its innovative model would translate well in Florida to bring further educational choice and opportunities to deserving Florida families."
Schools of Hope was designed to eliminate barriers for top charter operators, such as startup funding, facilities and local school board politics. In the just-completed legislative session, lawmakers set aside $6 million in funding to help Hope Operators with teacher training and startup costs.
The state's charter schools have scored other under-the-radar policy wins in recent years. The state created new exemptions from local zoning rules, convened a statewide authorizing commission, and is gradually phasing in close-to-equal per-student funding with district schools.
Combined with the state's continued enrollment growth, these policies have made Florida fertile ground for new charter schools.
New York's cap on the number of allowable charter schools has one of the state's best charter networks looking at other options for growth to help more students, including expansion to Florida, a state with a favorable policy environment, said Derrell Bradford, president of the education advocacy group 50CAN.
"Growth has been a priority for Success Academy for a very long time, because the network wants to give as many families access to a quality education, regardless of their ZIP code, as possible," said Bradford, who is also a member of the charter network's board.
Success has worked to spread its impact beyond the 53 schools it runs, publishing curriculum guides online and creating an education institute that offers training and resources for teachers.
"Right now, this is the best way for us to make sure that an example of what is possible exists beyond New York," Bradford said.
Debates over school choice accountability and regulations often become surrogate battles over whether states should have, or expand, options in the first place. This week saw several of these fights flare over charter schools.
Democrats in Philadelphia's mayoral race couldn't agree on whether they support charter schools, but they almost all seemed to agree on imposing a moratorium. In Newark, the city council took a different path, passing a resolution to oppose a bill that would limit charters.
An effort to clamp down on state-approved charter schools in A- or B- rated districts was defeated in Louisiana. A district judge there also ruled 33 charter schools authorized by the state are constitutional.
Differences in minority and special needs enrollment between charter schools and public schools had one Idaho teacher wanting a moratorium on the state's brand new charter school system.
Charter schools in Ohio aren't performing as well as charters in other states, so Republicans and Democrats are looking to overhaul their system of oversight. However, virtual charter schools feel some of the rules aren't appropriate.
Unexpected closures of charter schools in Florida have left legislators looking for ways to reign in unqualified operators. One Florida city is trying to take matters into its own hands by developing policies that may restrict new schools.
This week, a Connecticut columnist played the kitten card on charter schools.
Meanwhile...
President Barack Obama gave remarks on poverty and education at Georgetown University that provoked a strong reaction from conservatives, libertarians and school choice supporters.
Quotes of the Week:
"We have thousands of children in Newark alone who are on waiting lists to attend charter schools. The last thing the legislature should be doing is limiting their growth.” - , Newark City Councilman Anibal Ramos, Jr.
"So, it’s in our hands. Our friends—Governor Cuomo, so many assembly Democrats, and the Republicans—tell me they can’t get it done unless we back them and hold them as accountable as the opposition does. And, it’s not us bishops who have the clout, they whisper, but our parents and teachers You’re the ones who vote! They report to you!" - Cardinal James Dolan, proclaiming efforts in the New York Assembly to pass an Education Investment Tax Credit are not over.
We, for out part, report to you. Send your points and counterpoints to tpillow[at]sufs.org and pgibbons[at]sufs.org.
Richard Kahlenberg and Halley PotterValerie 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."
Gloria Romero Gloria Romero, a former Democratic majority leader of the California Senate, helped pass a bill that required parents to be informed if their child attended a school in the bottom 10 percent of all public schools in California. If they did, the parents could stick around at the school and try to transform it (for example, by converting it to a public charter school) or transfer to a different public school.
The teacher unions and school districts opposed the bill, sued to stop the program, and continue to fight the program to this very day.
Gloria Romero
According to Romero, the state department of education delayed releasing the list of lowest-performing schools until the last minute. With only a few weeks remaining before the transfer deadline, L.A. Unified finally posted the transfer application, but only in English and only online. Districts also denied parent groups from informing parents of their rights at school events such as PTA meetings.
Kudos to Romero and the California Center for Parent Empowerment for highlighting these obstacles and fighting with and on behalf of parents to knock them down.
Carmen Farina, the chancellor of New York City Public Schools, recently accused charter schools of pushing out low-performing students just before statewide exams.
Charter schools responded by demanding the chancellor back up her claims with evidence. And the local union president more or less sided with them, saying enrollment data for both charter and district schools should be audited and disclosed. Marcus Winters even took her to task for misreading what little data is available.
Perhaps with some irony, Farina made those remarks while clarifying her position on how charter schools need to be more transparent. Now she has the opportunity to be transparent about her claims.
"Polly" Williams
Happy Birthday! The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, America’s longest-running private K-12 school voucher program, is now 25 years old.
The program has not gone without controversies and critics but researchers generally find, at worst, no difference with traditional public schools and, at best, small but positive achievement gains, graduation rates and college attendance for participating students. Importantly, parents and students are happier going to the school of their choice rather than one assigned to them by the government. On a sadder note, Annette "Polly" Williams, a leading black Democrat and school choice leader who pioneered the program recently passed away. Her legacy, however, lives on.
