Last week, as thousands of schools celebrated the proliferation of educational options, some supporters of the school choice movement paused to reflect.
When we dispense with residence-based school assignments and the omnipotence of the district’s central office, a laundry list of questions emerges: Who should own the public school facilities? How should enrollment work? What becomes of schools that families flee? How can very different schools be held similarly accountable? How can the public at large shape its system of schools in the absence of a central board? Will a choice-based system disadvantage certain families?
These issues are daunting, for sure. But we have to grapple with them. Retreating to the old system is not an option. Over the last twenty-five years, families have been offered school choice, and their response has been unmistakable: three million kids in charters, two million kids taking online courses, and nearly thirty states with private school choice programs.
Indeed, right now, some of the most fascinating developments and compelling discussions in K–12 involve the implementation of school choice. I’ve argued previously that this area demands sustained attention. There are proposals for new approaches to public governance, research findings on the efficacy of decentralized systems, comparisons of cities that are expanding choice, ideas for accountability and school supply, and disagreements about who should have ultimate authority.
Mike Petrilli sketched the contours of these intramural debates, and got a little pushback.
But while the school choice conversation shifts from whether to how, some opponents are still trying to re-litigate the former, with increasingly strident rhetoric that ignores the ways expanding options and improving public education can work hand-in-hand.
Charter school wonk Alex Medler saw the party poopers coming. Some school choice advocates tried to push back with research. A better approach: Elevate parents' voices. Let them talk about empowerment. Gerard Robinson seems to agree.
Meanwhile...
Charter schools are in the crosshairs of a desegregation lawsuit. See also, competing takes here and here.
Celebrating the emergence of single-gender public schools. Questioning their efficacy and appropriateness.
Course access expands educational choice in rural communities.
Sometimes, the winners of school voucher lotteries are actually losers.
Arizona may go for universal ESAs.
There's new momentum for charter schools in Kentucky.
A Catholic school network takes root in Milwaukee.
A new school is born in inner-city Miami.
Charter schools' successes with hard-to-educate students.
Tweet of the Week
Even #NiagaraFalls is celebrating #schoolchoice and #scw 2016! pic.twitter.com/gAWHi60to4
— National School Choice Awareness Foundation (@ntlschoolchoice) January 28, 2016
Quote of the Week
Two key animating impulses of the school choice movement are ...
Freedom:
[U]ltimately just one goal must be paramount: maximizing freedom. In the end, it is defending liberty – the true, bedrock American value – that school choice must be about.
This is first and foremost a normative conviction. Freedom must have primacy because society is ultimately composed of individuals, and leaving individuals the right and ability to control their own lives is fundamentally more just than having the state – be it through a single dictator, or majority of voters – control our thoughts, words, or actions. — Neal McClusky, director of the Cato Institute's Center of Educational Freedom.
Equity:
But let me be perfectly clear here - this isn't about the act of making a certain choice; it's about the power of opportunity and having a choice in the first place. I wouldn't dare to tell you whether your neighborhood public school or a public charter is a better fit for your child. I'm not here to advocate that we sacrifice one school or degrade one system for the other. What I am fighting for is the best possible public education with the richest set of options for all children, so that families are empowered to make the choices that are best for them - so that they aren't trapped in the same situation as most of my neighbors growing up. — Shavar Jeffries, president, Democrats for Education Reform.
Please send tips, suggestions and feedback on our weekly roundups of school choice news — or other coverage at redefinED — to tpillow[at]sufs[dot]org.
