Good day, CharterFolk.
Well, a guy tries to take a week off for spring break.
What do you do?
Generate so much momentum, I’m not sure where to start.
First, though, let’s do the obligatory keep it real.
CharterWorld is not one hurtling forward blur of unmitigated progress.
Enrollment is declining. Some schools are closing. In some instances, charter closures are more the story than district economic dislocation. I find that mostly a function of school districts being able to hide the ball behind inscrutable public accounting rules, which only serves to mask problems such that they end up being far larger and more harmful to students in the end.
Be that is it may, yes, there are stories in the landscape of charter schools closing.
And there continue to be stories about people attempting to foist religiousness on charter schools, which would be, as I have written here previously (and will undoubtedly write about again should any of these cases get closer to the finish line), a gobsmacking disaster for our movement.
That need for realness duly addressed, I turn to the amazing progress CharterFolk are pulling off these days.
Let’s start with great public articulations of what we’re trying to get done.
Philadelphia Charters for Excellence Board Chair Dr. William Hayes points out the conflicts that school districts have as authorizers.
PCE followed up with a social media post underscoring the point.
It’s the same argument I made a couple years ago, saying the Philadelphia school district operating schools while claiming to impartially oversee charter school matters is like the Eagles fielding a team and playing referee at the same time.
Switch to Texas, where Futuro San Antonio Daiana Lambrecht makes similar points about the need to put aside parochial interests in order to better meet the needs of students.
It’s a drumbeat she’s been carrying for years, including here at CharterFolk.
Pivot to Nevada where the association’s new CEO, Selena Torres-Fossett, is already hosting events where the governor attends and advances the argument for accelerated charter school growth.
In New Jersey, Mike Piscal from College Achieve and Gloria Bonilla-Santiago from LEAP Academy tag-team on the momentum story emerging across the Garden State.
In New York, the City Journal reports that Classical Academies are doing as well today, if not even better …
… than we reported four years ago.
In North Carolina, the association is celebrating the state movement’s 30th anniversary and the organization’s recent receipt of a large CSP grant, which should only accelerate growth in one of the fastest expanding movements in the country.
In Colorado, a blue state leading the way toward full operational funding equity for charter schools, the League is now pushing for charter schools to secure equality of capital funding as well.
And lest I fail to keep up with the most late-breaking and potentially seismic changes happening in the nation, I include news from last night that the Indianapolis mayor has made appointments to the new board overseeing both charter and district schools.
Summary?
It’s an amazing new board, including CharterFolk Extraordinaire Eddie Rangel …
… The Mind Trust founder David Harris, who will be chairing the board and whose original vision for Indianapolis we have recognized here on several occasions …
… and Dexter Taylor, who not so long ago hosted me to a a great school visit at Paramount Brookside.
I could go on citing evidence of charter school momentum across the country.
Let’s close, though, with evidence of the brokenness against which this progress is being made.
Memphis is on the cusp of an outside audit release that will likely shake the city’s education establishment to its core.
In Los Angeles, as soon as an outsider expresses an unbiased opinion about the state of the district’s finances, the teachers union attacks it in preparation for its impending strike.
In Sacramento, things are so broken, the district can’t even bring an outsider in.
And in Chicago, the district’s year-long CEO search process proved so broken the board just threw in the towel and promoted the interim.
Increased charter school momentum …
… against a backdrop of public education brokenness.
It is the story of our times.
And if you’re trying to keep up with it all, I can offer only one piece of advice:
Don’t take a week off.