Spark a Revolution
By ROBERT GOTTSTEIN
Most students coming out of America's public education system are quite competent. Still, far too many students are reaching neither their potential nor our expectations of them. As a result, many Americans believe education costs more than it is worth, and they are less and less willing to pay for it. If this trend continues, we will see teachers' pay and standards decline, student-teacher ratios climb, school buildings deteriorate, and technology leap ahead of our teachings.
Public education once was a weapon against a polarized society of rich and poor. Failing to support our public schools has the effect of encouraging those who can afford it to seek quality private education while leaving the less financially able to make the most of worsening conditions in the public schools. As affluent families flee the public schools in increasing numbers, support for those in need of a free public education will erode further.
Across America—state by state, community by community, family by family—all children should have the opportunity to reach their educational potential. Charter schools offer that opportunity to families through a process of enlightened self-interest, responsibility, authority, and accountability.
But for charter schools to succeed, I believe they must meet three conditions. First, students attending public charter schools should be entitled to 100 percent of the appropriate federal, state, and local dollars committed to all public school students. By withholding financial parity, as some states do, we create a second class of students. Access to local school buildings, transportation outside the neighborhood, and parity in teacher pay will all be necessary for equity and success in the charter movement.
Second, multiple charter school sponsors are essential. Fair negotiations require that alternative local or state bodies, in addition to local school boards, be given the power to grant new charters. When districts are the only sponsoring body, they have nothing to lose by maintaining their control or denying charters. An alternative approval process will require the local districts to bargain in good faith or risk losing charter students and the dollars that follow them.
Third, charter schools can help maintain the separation of church and state in America's public schools. By allowing diverse educational methods to be employed in a secular setting, charter schools are a bulwark against vouchers, which can open the door to using public funds for religious instruction. Voucher systems can look attractive when public schools do not meet diverse needs and community demands head-on. But the mingling of public and private funds through vouchers gives greater opportunities to families of financial means and, I fear, allows the line between church and state to be blurred.
We must make public education worth more than it costs if we expect public support for quality educational opportunities for all of America's children—not just most children, all children. The good news is that there is no place on earth where people have a better opportunity and willingness to meet this challenge than in the United States of America. As Americans, we must get on with the business of making the kinds of change that will make a difference in the lives of millions of children who are falling behind and making our neighborhoods less safe, our families less stable, and our communities less secure.
Parents, families, and students need real opportunities to meet their own expectations and potential. Research shows that high expectations yield high results. Children do best when surrounded by people who have great expectations for them. A conversation I had with America's 1995 National Teacher of the Year, Elaine Griffin, confirmed my beliefs. I posed three questions. First, if you asked 100 people how many children would succeed in life, what would they guess? Her reply: "About 50 percent." Second question: If you asked 100 teachers how many of their students would succeed, what would they say? With some embarrassment, she answered, "Ten percent." Third question: If you asked 100 parents how many of their children would succeed, what would they answer? She smiled and said, "Nearly 100 percent."
I find it remarkable that we have taken so much authority away from parents—the very community that has the greatest expectations of children—and handed it over to a community whose expectations are so much lower.
Across the broad, political spectrum, most educators and policymakers understand that improved parent involvement is key to improved student performance. Charter schools can allow all parents their best opportunity to seek and find the answers to their children's academic challenges. Charter schools are America's best means of creating a revolution in rising expectations in public education.
As the winds of change in education blow into our communities, let us become the architects of change rather than letting those winds buffet and batter us. Charter schools, by giving choice to families, could become a key feature of the changing face of public education.
Robert Gottstein is a member of the Alaska State Board of Education.
Photo by Boyer Photography
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