WORD has it that another state’s legislators may do away with-completely do away with-the limit on the number of charter schools allowed to operate in that state’s worst school districts.
And why not? If your child’s school consistently fails in its mission to educate kids, wouldn’t you want to try something different-almost anything different?
So not only are these lawmakers thinking about doing away with their state’s cap on the number of charter schools, they’re talking about removing that state’s cap on the amount of tax money that may be spent on charter schools. If these sweeping reforms are adopted, their state would join Hawaii, Idaho and Missouri in the race to improve the quality of public education.Those states lifted similar caps last year.
And which state are we talking about here?
Massachusetts.
How about that? The place that gave us the Kennedys, Michael Dukakis, Tip O’Neill, John Kerry, and James Taylor. Yes, good old Massachusetts, as in the People’s Republic of. The bluest of blue states. The commonwealth that makes Washington State look conservative: Massachusetts.
Dispatches from the East say the Bay State now limits the number of charter schools it allows to 120. Another law there limits the amount that can be spent on charter schools. Even though Massachusetts now has 45,000 kids on waiting lists for those charter schools.
But lawmakers up there are now hearing from The People. Result: They just might want to give all of their state’s children a chance at a better education. At last.
A FUNNY thing tends to happen when people-voters-wake up and realize that public schools aren’t jobs programs for teachers but places that should educate kids, not warehouse them. That’s when the people’s representatives may rise above ideology and the demands of special interests and anything else standing in the way of a real education for a state’s kids. That’s when the people-parents, reformers, concerned citizens-find their voice at last and lawmakers start to listen to them. If they want to keep their jobs.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Massachusetts Teacher Association will probably oppose any such legislation. Teachers’ unions aren’t about to approve any law so advanced, and that promises so much real reform in education. No surprise there. And there was no surprise in the reasoning the union gave for its opposition, either:
Money.
Tax money for education follows the student in Massachusetts, just as in most states. And if a charter school starts educating kids just down the street from a failing school, more kids will want to go there-or their parents will want them to-and all those rotten schools may find they’ve suddenly got less money to waste. And those same old teachers’ unions just can’t tolerate that kind of thing.
When it comes to teachers’ unions and money for schools, priorities can be upside-down. Money and jobs first, education second. Or maybe last.
Let’s note a few more things about this popular uprising in Massachusetts. First, the movement to remove these caps on charter schools and how to fund them is being led by Democrats. After all, bills have to be pushed through the Massachusetts General Court-that’s what the state’s legislature is called up there-and as you might imagine, Democrats hold super majorities in both chambers. (Although a Republican was said to have been seen walking the halls of the state capitol back in 1998. He was captured and put on display at the Franklin Park Zoo-in the exotic animal display.)
Any legislation to upgrade the quality of education available in Massachusetts would have to be signed by that state’s Democratic governor, Deval Patrick, who’s said to be a supporter of charter schools. So the future for charters in Massachusetts could be bright.
Second, the papers up there say that Massachusetts has started asking the best administrators of charter schools to take over traditional public schools that are failing. Which is exactly what should happen. If some shining light of a school superintendent or principal takes three or four hundred students in a school district and puts together a team that gets their academic scores up, folks will take notice. And will promote that somebody-or move her to another school that needs her kind of leadership. It can happen again and again. Till no schools are failing. To quote that great educator, old Satchmo himself, what a wonderful woi-oild.
NOW LET’S talk about Arkansas. Of all the things our Ledge could have done right-or wrong-this session, here’s what could make the biggest difference for public education: It passed HB 1528, which shifts the responsibility for approving new charter schools from the state’s Board of Education to a new division within the Department of Education-one that could prove less political and more effective. This new division could ignore ideology and favoritism and all other such irrelevancies and just improve public education by authorizing more and better charter schools. Hope is reborn.
Some of us get the feeling that charter schools are here to stay and that they’ll be the driving force when it comes to better public education in this country in the coming decades. Which is why the passage of HB 1528 could make all the difference.
But the most hopeful development of all in public education is this: The voices of parents demanding better schools are starting to drown out the usual cries from teachers’ unions trying to save the status unsatisfactory quo. It’s happening all over the country. Even in Massachusetts. And if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere-including Arkansas.
Who says we don’t live in an age of miracles?
Editorial, Pages 16 on 03/30/2013