Good morning, CharterFolk.
We start with a good rendering of historic progress in New Orleans.
I particularly liked the choice to focus on the experience of Jerel Bryant at Carver High School, which we did here at CharterFolk five years ago.
The NPR article gets it mostly right, notwithstanding its middling title.
In addition to leading with a 77-year-old, long-time New Orleans educator who had originally been strongly opposed to charter schools, but became completely won over after her school converted to charter status, the article highlights achievement data, which Doug Harris at Tulane University says are …
… hard to argue with.
“Test scores, high school graduation rates, college-going, everything improved, and everything improved a lot,” he says.
He attributes those improvements to the move to charters — and officials’ willingness to close schools that didn’t meet their standards.
Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, people are beginning to draw the inevitable comparisons to New Orleans.
Let’s hope they do so aware of the historic progress that has been made since Katrina.
Across the state line, a city is weathering a completely different kind of storm.
Chalkbeat reports that the asset of Chicago’s football team is smaller than the liability of its school district.
We’ll see what the board does now that financial levies are finally beginning to break.
Yesterday, San Francisco Unified, as expected, unanimously denied a new charter school petition.
Some cities embrace hope.
Others dig in their heels.
Ultimately, these matters will be determined at the ballot box.
Our world is gearing up for another go in Denver …
… another place whose historic progress we should claim with pride.
The number of places embracing hope …
… continues to grow.
But we’re still quite a ways from prominent dems replanting their heels.
In Kentucky, the state’s governor is seen as a front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. He has made opposition to charter schools one of his signature stances …
… which has burnished his bonafides with the far left …
… where status quo protectors direct their political money.
Now the state’s supreme court will decide whether his effort to choke off charter school funding is constitutional.
Sadly, the endless drone of culture war intrusion into schools continues unabated.
In San Francisco, there’s been virtual nonstop drama about whether the district will implement the state’s new ethnic studies curriculum.
In the end, only a tiny fraction of parents chose to opt out.
It’s why it behooves us to keep focused on what the vast majority of parents care more about:
Whether their kids are learning anything.