Weekend greetings, CharterFolk.
I start with the obvious: a recognition of the appalling-ness of the Charlie Kirk assassination.
My brother from another mother wrote as good a piece as I’ve seen on this topic coming from an education reform perspective.
I’ll let Andy speak for the family.
Meanwhile, I thank many of you for reaching out in recent weeks to offer kind words, to purchase new subscriptions, and to contribute other forms of support.
Rest assured, CharterFolk.
We aren’t going anywhere.
We’ll secure the resources to not just stay the course but grow what we’re doing.
For those of you able to help, please do.
Meanwhile.
On we go.
Education Scarcity: A Picture Worth a Thousand Words
Many of the complimentary comments coming in of late have been about posts describing the vacuousness of the “Abundance” discussion as it relates to public education.
The Atlantic got it right this week.
Beyond pointing out the blatant hypocrisy of Klein and Thompson leaving education matters out of their book as I have done …
… Solana went so far as to state that power dynamics in public education illustrate why the entire abundance agenda is delusional.
Just as the primary interest of a teacher’s union is not to ensure the best possible education for young people, but to secure better pay and more time off for teachers, the primary interest of our bloated state and local workforce on any given project is not to ensure that project’s swift and magnificent completion. Its purpose is to secure money—as much of it as possible, for steady work that takes as long as possible ….
The reality is that the Democratic base isn’t actually voting for abundance. The voters who make up the backbone of the party, representing everything from government and private-sector unions to NGOs, are voting for steady work paid at a bloated premium (and in perpetuity for those lucky enough to score a pension), not to fix any of the problems their jobs ostensibly exist to solve. We have the country we have today because this is what the voters requested. This is democracy ….
Abundance Democrats can have abundance or they can be popular in Brooklyn, but they can’t have both, which is why my sense today is that the movement is made up entirely of well-meaning but hopelessly naive optimists, and very clever propagandists who understand that the project is hopeless.
Fortunately, there are at least a few courageous Dems who do not find the entire situation hopeless. This week people at the Progressive Policy Institute surfaced education policy ideas that should have been included in Klein and Thompson’s book.
The entire document is worth a read. I paste below its summary statement regarding charter schools.
At the heart of this robust agenda for public school choice is our steadfast support of high-quality charter schools. State policymakers should allow these schools to grow by removing statutory caps and equalizing their operational and facilities funding. Federal policymakers should continue to invest in the Charter Schools Program to create new schools, but should ease restrictions on these funds to allow state administrators to spend a greater percentage of their grants on technical assistance or to fund quality improvement initiatives for existing schools.
This doesn’t mean, though, that progressive standard-bearers are making any pivot on education matters.
This morning’s editorial from the Washington Post cites several policy areas where Mamdani is repositioning himself …
… but nowhere does he back off his avowed opposition to charter schools.
Thus, the photo that accompanied the editorial …
… is worth a thousand words.
It’s a portrait of skepticism coming, not just from the Washington Post editorial board, but from an entire generation of young people who are having to grow up in an era of needless education scarcity.
The Five Points of a Charter School Movement North Star
In the past two weeks, several readers have reached out regarding my declaration that, for the first time in five and a half years of CharterFolk, we finally have a North Star.
“What is your definition of a North Star?” they have asked.
It’s a fair question, actually.
Using the CharterFolk search engine, I see 50 posts at CharterFolk with references to a “North Star.”
And that doesn’t count dozens of others where I talked about the need for “new vision” …
… which is essentially the same thing.
In none was I crisp in defining what a North Star is.
So let me do so here.
I begin with what should be self-evident, which is that nothing written here could ever meet the definition.
Because a North Star, a true North Star, can’t come from a place like CharterFolk.
All we can do is surface a few ideas and encourage others who are in a place to assemble the five points that make up a charter school North Star.
It’s why the first point in a North Star must be the fact that it is …
… owned by the charter school movement itself.
It needs to emanate from a place that is known to be representative of the broader charter school movement.
In most cases, that is going to be a membership association.
But it’s possible that one could come from a different organization that operates very much like a membership association, deeply engaging charter school stakeholders such that the star is understood to be bought into and advanced by the movement itself.
Secondly, a North Star must unapologetically call for the local community to …
… grow the number of students served by effective charter schools.
This is something that we’ve done many times before. The important thing in the current landscape, though, is to make sure that we don’t appear to be seeking growth for growth’s sake.
The charter school movement grows for a purpose that is bigger than ourselves.
Which brings us to the third point, which is to pass …
… the “Question 2 test” such that we demonstrate our intent to make all of public education better.
This is another topic that I’ve written about extensively …
… how charter school opponents during the 2016 ballot measure campaign to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts didn’t even try to contest the fact that charter schools are doing better with students than many district schools.
What they argued was that it didn’t matter because, in their view, the growth of charter schools makes all other schools worse.
Fortunately, we live during a time when ample evidence is emerging that the growth of charter schools, in fact, makes all other schools better. It’s happened now in a number of cities across the United States.
Places where achievement gaps have narrowed, and where all boats have risen.
How we believe that happens needs to be stated explicitly.
Perhaps in some contexts, we can make the assertion that competition alone will get the job done.
In most places, though, that will not suffice. Generally, we will have to argue that, beyond simply providing constructive competitive pressure, the charter school world intends to use its growing advocacy heft to purge the traditional system of its age-old unfairnesses and its unaccountable brokenness such that all schools become better and fairer.
Which brings us to the fourth point, which is the …
… policy agenda we will advance to bring about the circumstance where charter schools are growing and where all of public education is evolving to become fairer and more excellent.
It’s to define the end state toward which we are committed to evolve all of public education.
The very thing that Stand For Children, The Mind Trust, Rise Indy and the Indiana Charter Innovation Center have come together to articulate.
Finally, we come to the fifth point, which is that a true North Star for the charter school movement must be made …
… public.
It’s not enough to meet amongst ourselves and come to agreement about the path forward.
A North Star has to burn brightly so that all can see it and can steer by it.
It’s perhaps the hardest part of making a North Star.
Being willing to take the heat for ideas that will be seen as toxic when they are first surfaced, but which will become understood to be common sense over time as the broader public sees the traditional system continue to struggle, such that a few years later they turn back to us and say:
CharterFolk, what was that crazy idea you had?
It’s what The Mind Trust has been willing to do for more than a decade now.
Taking the heat and the blowback that comes with A1-level attention time and time again such that the local community is finally asking the question that needs to be asked …
… such that we can offer our unambiguous answer.
Of course what we are seeking is not the end of public education in Indianapolis, or anywhere, for that matter.
What we are seeking is the end of public education as we have known it.
Such that all schools are finally seen to be on a trajectory toward excellence and equity.
It yields finally the definition that we need:
The Five Points of a Charter School Movement North Star.
Something we want burning brightly in communities across the United States.