Weekend greetings, CharterFolk.
We start with some good news today – 17 developers vying to open charter schools in Tennessee.
It’s what happens when policy makers create viable pathways for new schools to open.
Yes, it’s ridiculous that developers in Tennessee still have to go to local school districts first where they are often ridiculously turned down.
But a few years back, policy makers created an appeal body at the state level which provides developers the fair shake they deserve, allowing many to open.
And if we trust CREDO, it is a very good thing that more charter schools are being allowed to open in Tennessee.
Nearly everywhere we look, we see charter school growth in the works.
Even in the most ridiculously anti-charter school environments, we see CharterFolk forging on.
In California this week, we saw the courts stand behind a new charter school that has managed to open in Napa.
We also saw a new charter school drive announced in San Bernadino.
And another California operator, seeing a daunting pathway to growth closer to home, has now decided to open a school in Colorado where authorizing at a state level continues to be improved.
A decade ago in California, we made a goal to get to a million kids in charter schools.
I’ve written here previously that I think it was a mistake to have made a BHAG so publicly.
But it wasn’t the bigness, the hairiness or the audacity that was the problem.
It was the lack of vision.
It was advancing a goal unhinged from a from a compelling why that was the fundamental error.
Why a million kids in charter schools?
It came across as wanting charter school growth for the sake of charter school growth, which, of course is not what we seek. We want charter school growth because we want public education to improve for all students, while creating even greater benefit for those who need improved opportunity most. But being unable to clearly articulate why we wanted more kids in charter schools, we left a void in public narrative, which the other side was more than happy to fill.
This is why I believe that last year’s study from PPI is one of the most important studies we have ever seen about charter schools.
It spoon feeds us our why.
It shows that, in all ten of the cities in the United States where charter schools have grown to serve a third of students, all boats have risen and achievement gaps have closed.
A third of students in charter schools should be what we want in every city in America. Not just every city, but every state, for who is to say that, should we achieve such charter school enrollment at state levels, we wouldn’t see similar all boats rising and achievement gaps closing across entire states? And, using that same rationale, who is to say we wouldn’t see it for the entire country?
For many years, we have seen CharterFolk go more quiet with our ambitions. It’s been a moment of self-doubt or ambivalence. I’ve called it the era of no vision and no voice.
But we’re coming through that now. We better recognize now the reason for hope we represent.
We also more deeply recognize, given that we serve nearly four million kids nationally, there’s no sense in trying to go low profile. Our opponents are on to us no matter how low we keep our heads.
Indeed, in exactly the places where we have shown all boats rising and gaps closing, we’re seeing the biggest pushback!
Look at some of hottest spots in the nation right now.
CharterFolk having to fend off inaccurate reporting in Minnesota.
Having to defeat highly threatening legislation in Michigan.
And having to gear up for another round of attacks in the New Jersey legislature.
All this pushback happens despite the historic progress that charter schools are making in St. Paul, Detroit, Newark and Camden.
In fact, it’s probably more accurate to say that all this new pushback is happening precisely because of the progress that charter schools are making.
In Missouri, a state with two cities at the top of the PPI list, status quo interests are trying to limit the spread of charter schools.
In such a circumstance, attempting to keep our heads low does nothing but cede the narrative to other side.
So we embrace the unavoidable, which is to make the counter-argument more forcefully, explaining why it is we want to expand charter schools more broadly.
And while, yes, it does involve having to embrace more controversy than we might prefer, it affords us the chance to draw attention to the successes we are having and to share anew our vision.
Call it a return to the era of the charter school BHAG.
Only this time, a new and improved one.
One where our audacity is more deeply rooted in our why.
A third of kids in charter schools everywhere.
The level where all kids are better served, and where those needing better opportunity most finally get the great public educations they deserve.