Tennessee's legislature has withheld the promise of Charter Schools
to parents in failing schools for too long. Now the federal government
will leave the state few options in how to deal with these failing public
schools. These options include: Reconstitution (firing ineffective teachers and administrators), private management, state takeover of failing schools and Public Charter Schools. Charters would appear to be the most benign
of the options.
US Education Secretary Rod Paige has urged Tennessee lawmakers to
enact charter schools with "legal and financial autonomy" to give parents the choices they are required to have through new federal legislation. As Secretary Paige said to lawmakers in his February 5, 2002 visit to Nashville - "the time for change and support of charter schools is now."
Former business executive John Danner keenly observes: "Charter laws
represent a compromise between conservative and liberal positions on public education." Initiatives in nearly 40 states already have demonstrated great progress in test scores in previously poor performing schools. Tennessee's school children deserve the same chance.
Charter schools are growing quickly because the present public school
system is outdated and often fails to deliver an excellent education to
students.
Many educators liken traditional public education to a factory, in which unformed children are fed in to one side of the factory, teachers slave away at the production line, and complete, well-educated children are popped out of the other side.
Our schools have centralized management in district offices and engage in collective bargaining through teachers' unions, exactly the model that factories adopted one hundred years ago. Historically, this method was seen to be an efficient means of mass-producing education.
However, the current system does not adapt easily to change. Schools are
rarely closed because of poor academic achievement. Because of this lack of accountability, schools continue to operate long after their educational outcomes decay. The educational establishment's factory system poses a major impediment to school reform.
Charter schools are public schools of choice that are granted a certain
amount of autonomy, as determined by the individual state law and the local charter. Charter schools are then emancipated to make decisions in
relation to the structure, curriculum, and educational emphasis of the school. In return for this independence, charter schools are held accountable for the academic achievement of the students in the charter school. The school faces closure if academic achievement or performance standards are not met.
In particular, the teachers union has made it clear that their position is to wait out acting on failing school legislation. Traditionally education reform critics use a three-prong strategy. They try to block pending reform
legislation. When education reformers prevail, they take them to court, not just once, but over and over. These obstructionists then try to smother education reform victories through regulation. The soft bigotry of low expectations simply cannot be tolerated in our state.
Public charter schools are motivating other school systems across the nation to improve the delivery of educational services. In addition, research indicates charter schools can have an unintended positive impact, and may contribute to statewide reform efforts that had no formal connection to charters, such as new systems of school accountability, drives for site-based management, and changes in school financing practices. Charters have taken care of underserved students, saved capital costs by
taking overflow students in growing districts, and even offered options to chronically disgruntled parents.
Reforming and improving Tennessee's education system is of utmost importance in our society. Education will remain a focus of statewide policy debates and political campaigns. Charter schools offer a bridge from the business-as-usual mentality toward a more free-market approach favored by
reformers. When we set high standards for our schools and our children, and when we give our schools and our children the support they need and hold them accountable for results, public education can get the job done.
Charter school proponents confront a daunting assignment. The opponents are tenacious, relentless, single-minded, and well-financed. They have a highly developed infrastructure at the local, state and national level. And they focus on a single goal: to stop Charter Schools.
Likewise, if lawmakers and policymakers have the fortitude to confront the teachers union and other obstructionists over failing schools, they must be just as resolute. Improving educational opportunities for all children
remains paramount to reforming education and ending a cycle of failure that many children endure throughout their educational experience.
(J.C. Bowman is director of education policy for the Tennessee Institute for Public Policy, a free-market think tank located in Nashville.)