“Wait! Keys, you forgot your keys!”
My older sister runs back into the house and grabs the
keychain from our mom’s outstretched left hand while her right was engaged in a
battle with my defiant little brother, wrestling him into a very large
raincoat. Within seconds my sister is back down the driveway, leaping into her
awaiting carpool.
“Did you grab an umbrella?” My mom calls after her.
“I’ve got it!” she yells over her shoulder, sliding
the van door shut.
“Will you please
do something with that hair?” My brother reluctantly runs a licked palm over
his unruly hair while my mom tosses me a brown paper bag lunch.
Another eight minutes of “oh, I forgot this!” and “are
you sure you have everything?” and I’m
helping my mom load my kid brother into the family car.
I take off at a speed-walk down the street, finally starting
my twenty minute walk to middle school.
I know that it wasn’t like that every morning, but somehow I look back
and remember those chaotic mornings fondly. I can imagine that most families
had some similar semi-dysfunctional, morning routine that got everyone to
school just as the bell was ringing
its final warning. I find myself both in awe and admiration of my mom for those
many mornings she somehow manipulated time and got three, half-asleep kids fed
and to class before the bell (…usually). I know though that reminiscing with
her about the “good ole days” she’d probably shrug and simply respond, “Well, I
had to get you guys to school somehow.”
And that was it.
That’s all there was to it and I think parents today are of an
equivalent mind. There isn’t a parent out there who doesn’t want the best
education for their children but, like my mom, sometimes they lack the time and
resources to know exactly where that can be found.
Thanks to NCLB, we have a brilliant array of statistics that clearly
illustrate an achievement gap among minorities and those of low-income areas…
Unfortunately, the Act has done little to close that gap in the now eleven
years it has been in effect.
The situation is this: Many public schools in urban areas are failing. And
I don’t mean that the students attending these schools are failing, I mean the
system is failing them in that it fails to provide a quality education or even
a decent means of learning. Take the city of New York, which has the largest
public school system in the United States. Of 23 public zoned schools in a
district, 19 have fewer than 50% of students reading at grade level. More specifically at PS 241, only 10% of eighth
graders were reading at grade level. The statistics are astonishing and
frightening and are similar in urban cities throughout the country.
So what can be done? We know there’s a problem. Let’s fix it.
Charter Schools are making tremendous breakthroughs in education and have
the success rates to prove it. What’s the difference between a charter and a
regular public school? Charter schools aren’t held back by typical union
restrictions and are able to hire teachers outside of the union and create
curriculums that they feel best serve the students. This enables teachers to
have more artistic freedom in the classroom which has proven to be successful. Unlike
the goals of NCLB, the academic objectives of charter schools go beyond the
graduation of high school and stress the importance of obtaining a higher
education degree. Moreover charter schools don’t reject students based on their
zone or geography! They typically accept any student who registers unless the
demand exceeds capacity in which case a public lottery is held.
It is clear from lottery turnouts that Charter Schools are in
overwhelming demand. Why is it then that these failing schools aren’t being
reformed to resemble the charters in hopes of recreating this success? It seems
obvious, right? We’ve discovered this great system that not only provides
students with a phenomenal education but also paves the road to a future higher
degree, so why aren’t these charters popping up all over the place?
Unfortunately this is where the face of politics rears its ugly head,
impedes success, and puts the priority of adults before the priority of children.
The United Federation of Teachers, the largest teacher’s union in the United
States, has slowed the expansion of charter schools in a desperate attempt to
protect personal interests. The charter system is threatening to the UFT in
that it is outside union policies. Teachers, if not performing up to standards
can be fired without an unnecessarily drawn out, 3 year, and nearly $200,000
process (in the public school system, once a teacher is awarded tenure it is
extremely difficult to dismiss them even based on low performance). Many
charter schools also take advantage of the “open door policy”, a policy that
enables principals and fellow colleagues to observe a teacher in the classroom.
The idea is success through collaboration. This is prohibited in the union
contract.
The fight extends beyond the political arena. Proactive reformers and
charter school advocates (Geoffrey Canada, Eva Moskowitz, and Michelle Rhee to
name a few) have suffered personal insults and attacks (spearheaded by the UFT)
on their careers.
What does all this mean to parents, and more importantly, what does it
mean to students? Absolutely nothing. Nothing. Parents worry about the tardy bell. They worry about
sandwiches. Basketball practices. Carpools. Snow days. Report cards. Clarinet
recitals. And above all, they worry about giving their kid a better life than the
one they had.
Families aren’t concerned with the egos of educational bureaucrats and
they shouldn’t have to be. This country strives for innovation in every industry.
The education system is no different and the charters should be the future of
it.
For more information, I highly recommend checking out this documentary.
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