Charter school debate
Column by Ken Plum
www.kenplum.com
Among the topics that are likely to be fiercely debated this legislative session are revisions to Virginia’s charter-school law. The Center for Education Reform, advocates for expanding charter schools, recently gave Virginia a failing grade on its charter school law (www.charterschoolresearch.com). An idea of what the Center feels is appropriate charter school legislation can be gleaned from the fact that it gave the District of Columbia along with Minnesota and California an “A” grade.
The debate on charter schools should not be partisan. Both Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell and President Barack Obama support charter schools. According to a Richmond Times Dispatch editorial of Dec. 9, 2009, Virginia currently has only three of the nearly 5,000 charter schools in the nation. President Obama supports financial incentives to states to increase the number of charter schools. In his career as a legislator, Gov.-elect McDonnell was a supporter of charter schools, tuition tax credits, and vouchers. With the pressures on the budget and the inevitable reduction in funding for public schools, it is hard to see where the money for charter schools would come from unless the federal government comes through with some assistance. Already the Virginia School Boards Association has started to campaign against charter schools as “a program that will take existing school funds from your budgets to spend on establishing charter schools.”
The conservative Virginia think tank, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, supports an expansion of charter schools. It has called for an appropriate debate on the issue. “It would be nice, as Virginians look for educational opportunities that will help children, if all the parties concerned offered constructive new solutions instead of resistance and protectionism. We’ll accomplish a lot more for kids if we work together on their behalf,” the Institute wrote recently (www.thomasjeffersoninst.org).
Andy Rotherham who was educated in the public schools in Reston, has his own education think tank, Education Sector (www.educationsector.org). He, too, has called for making “public charter schools a real option in Virginia.” As an educator myself for nearly 30 years I was deeply involved in setting up alternative schools within the public schools to meet students’ special needs and interests. Specifically in the debate on charter schools I will be listening to hear how charter schools are different from alternative, magnet, and center-based schools within the public schools; whether the charters will have to meet the same standards, testing, and reporting as public schools; whether charter students will need to pass the SOL tests and No Child Left Behind Standards; and whether the current state funding formula and staffing standards will apply to charter schools.
The debate about charter schools can be a healthy way to improve our public schools and the education of Virginia’s children.
Ken Plum is the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He represents the 36th District in the House of Delegates.
[...] Democratic House leader argues that support for charter schools shouldn’t be a “partisan” [...]
I am pleased to learn that Delegate Ken Plum (D-36) is at least willing to keep an open mind on the issue of charter schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He correctly pointed out that there are but three such institutions at work in Virginia, each located south of Richmond with a fourth slated to open during this calendar year in the Richmond area.
There is a reason there are so few charter schools operating in Virginia. As someone seeking to open a charter school in Northern Virginia, I naturally, have been doing my homework. (I have also taught in both public and charter schools in MD and DC.) In reading the Code of Virginia’s 10 pages concerning charter schools, a three-word headline can be used to sum up why there are a mere three in the Commonwealth: Fox Guards Henhouse.
One of the reasons there are so few charter schools is that approval from local schools boards in the jurisdiction where a charter is to be located is mandated. So, the first step must be to rid local school boards of such destructive power. It is destructive as competition is the bellwether of America as a whole and such a level of competition amongst schools will only help create better schools, better students and ultimately a better society.
Public charter schools ought to have autonomy to operate as they wish as long as they are able to produce results in keeping within the standards under which all Virginia public school students are expected to perform.
Public schools are too often handcuffed by bureaucracy limiting their movements and actions, while charter schools, at least to the extent I experienced in DC, had a greater degree of flexibility and independence even in spite of their faults as institutions.
Governor-elect Bob McDonnell campaigned in support of charter school expansion this past fall. A commission needs to be established next Tuesday – day one of the new administration and amending the Code of Virginia should be amended to pave the way for smoother road for charter schools to take their rightful place in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[...] — Mayoral candidates offer proposals for public schools (New Orleans Times Picayune) Maine — Charter school debate (Augusta Free Press) Mass. — Hold firm on education reform (Boston Globe) Minn. — YES: results, [...]
[...] the charter talk from the GOP comes as no surprise, yesterday’s piece by Del. Ken Plum caught my attention–in a big way. Plum’s column is significant for two reasons. [...]