Good day, CharterFolk.
Part of what I try to do here is keep Folk informed about what is happening in CharterLand while also highlighting positive developments that tend to receive less attention than the negative ones.
That also means keeping it real when things do not go our way.
A dispiriting court decision in Kentucky.
Still not quite getting it in the end zone in South Dakota.
Religious liberty advocates pressing agendas that risk putting the broader charter movement in jeopardy.
So yes, we face headwinds. Who in CharterLand is not familiar with them?
But what is in our faces right now does not carry the same force as what is at our backs.
This week, CTA attempted to stage a show of force at the California Charter School Association conference.
Virtually no one showed up.
Their concern is understandable.
Much of the national conversation focuses on the headwinds charter schools face in California. That part is true. The 2019 changes made growth more difficult.
And yet, we continue to grow.
Charter schools keep growing even as district enrollment continues to collapse.
In the past three years, charter school enrollment has grown by 49,666 students. District enrollment has dropped by 135,685.
Since I left CCSA seven years ago, charter school enrollment has grown by nearly 80,000 students.
This is what the movement looks like in the part of the country where our prospects are supposedly weakest.
In other places, the winds at our back hurtle us forward.
In Indiana, we are nearing approval of a policy change that would effectively convert the remaining traditional district into a CMO, creating the functional equivalent of an all charter district.
Awareness of all charter models is spreading. This week, Washington Monthly examined whether the New Orleans North Star approach should serve as a template for other cities. They pointed to Washington, D.C., where nearly half of public school students attend charter schools.
Legislators in New Hampshire are calling for similar approaches.
In San Antonio, observers are openly discussing the significant impact charter schools are having on surrounding districts.
So yes, there are crosscurrents.
But people did not talk about us this way before, CharterFolk.
When we look with greater meteorological precision, one thing becomes clear:
The weather has changed.
The headwinds?
Breezes.
At our back?
Gales.