tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/charter-schools-7027/articlesCharter schools – The Conversation2023-09-28T05:39:02Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134332023-09-28T05:39:02Z2023-09-28T05:39:02ZIn fractious debate, GOP candidates find common ground on cause of inflation woes and need for school choice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550803/original/file-20230928-19-kzxcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2634%2C1825&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy debate the finer points.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/republican-presidential-candidates-florida-gov-ron-desantis-news-photo/1705132466?adppopup=true">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>It was a night in which even “<a href="https://www.reaganfoundation.org/education/virtual-learning-hub/the-great-communicator/">the great communicator</a>” himself may have struggled to be heard.</em></p>
<p><em>At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on Sept. 27, 2023, seven Republican candidates looking to become the leading challenger to the absent GOP front-runner Donald Trump <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/27/1201848640/second-republican-debate-california">interrupted, cross-talked and bickered</a> – often to the exasperation of the presidential debate moderators.</em></p>
<p><em>And yet, between the heated exchanges, important economic and business issues were discussed – from national debt and government shutdowns to labor disputes and even school choice. One thing the candidates agreed on: They aren’t fans of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/08/15/what-is-bidenomics-president-biden-s-economic-philosophy-explained/e9ba8398-3b9b-11ee-aefd-40c039a855ba_story.html">Bidenomics</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listening in for The Conversation were economists <a href="https://www.gonzaga.edu/school-of-business-administration/faculty/detail/herzogr">Ryan Herzog</a> of Gonzaga University and University of Tennessee’s <a href="https://web.utk.edu/%7Eccarrut1/">Celeste K. Carruthers</a>. Here are their main takeaways from the debate.</em></p>
<h2>Inflation talk assigns blame, falls flat on solutions</h2>
<p><strong>Ryan Herzog, Gonzaga University</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-voters-white-house-doing-more-harm-than-good-inflation">most recent Fox News survey</a> showed that 91% of Americans are worried about inflation and 80% about rising housing costs. I tuned into the second GOP debate hoping to hear how the candidates would solve these problems. I was left disappointed. </p>
<p>Not a single candidate mentioned rising housing costs, and few even acknowledged inflation. Given how much the issue has dominated the news, I assumed the candidates would mention it more than the <a href="https://rollcall.com/2023/08/24/transcript-gop-presidential-hopefuls-debate-in-milwaukee">eight times</a> they did in the prior debate. I was wrong. </p>
<p>First, let’s check some inflation facts. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley claimed that the average household is spending US$7,000 more per year on groceries and gas because of inflation. I believe she also meant to include <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/11/economy/inflation-rate-spending/index.html">housing costs</a>. The latest data shows the annual inflation for food at home – as opposed to restaurant meals – is rising less than 3% per year. While that’s up 24% <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=19mVB">since the start of the pandemic</a>, it’s far below what you’d need for an increase of nearly $600 per month. </p>
<p>Next, former Vice President Mike Pence said that recent wage gains have not kept up with inflation. But according to the most recent data, average wage growth has actually <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/business/economy/wage-growth-inflation.html">outpaced inflation</a>. Indeed, workers in lower-wage industries that are seeing labor shortages, such as the leisure and hospitality sector, have seen <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/29/low-income-wages-employment-00097135">very substantial pay increases</a>. </p>
<p>Nearly every candidate blamed inflation on <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/government-spending-fuels-inflation-covid-relief-pandemic-debt-federal-reserve-stimulus-powell-biden-stagflation-11645202057">excessive federal spending</a>. Under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the total level of U.S. government debt increased by nearly $8 trillion and $4.5 trillion, <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=18YJx">respectively</a>. As expected, most candidates proposed cutting government spending and taxes to help struggling families. But it’s unclear whether those policies, taken together, would be effective at lowering inflation.</p>
<p>The candidates also agreed on the need to promote U.S. energy independence – through drilling, fracking and coal – to promote low and stable inflation. But while reducing energy costs would support lower inflation, there was zero discussion of how new technologies like artificial intelligence could be used to fight inflation – for example, by improving productivity. In the end, most candidates resorted to old arguments and avoided debate on 21st-century solutions.</p>
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<h2>School choice is common refrain, but evidence on impact is mixed</h2>
<p><strong>Celeste K. Carruthers, University of Tennessee</strong> </p>
<p>Before a commercial break midway through the debate, moderators teased viewers to return for questions on education in the U.S. It’s understandable that voters would want to hear what candidates have to say on the issue. Younger students have <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/">a long way to go</a> to recover from COVID-era learning losses, and many families are dissatisfied with public education to the point that they are <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/where-kids-went-nonpublic-schooling-and-demographic-change-during-pandemic">leaving public schools</a> for home school and private school options. The education portion of the debate ended up being a short exchange, however, with more focus on immigration, inflation, border security, foreign policy and the opioid epidemic. </p>
<p>One common theme across candidates was at least a brief mention of school choice. School choice describes a variety of different policies that give the parents of pre-K-12 students more options for where they send their kids to school. These options can include charter schools, magnet schools, public schools outside of a student’s school zone or in another district, or even private schools. </p>
<p>Gov. Haley voiced a <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/school-vouchers-next-great-leap-forward">commonly held view</a> among school choice supporters that providing students with more schooling options improves education by encouraging competition. Gov. DeSantis referenced “universal school choice” in his home state of Florida, which <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/florida-just-became-the-nations-biggest-school-choice-laboratory/">recently passed legislation</a> that allows any student to apply for several thousand dollars in state funds that can be used toward private school tuition. </p>
<p>Researchers have found that earlier phases of private school vouchers in Florida led to <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26758/w26758.pdf">improvements</a> in public school student test scores, absenteeism and suspensions, which supports the idea that competition from private schools can benefit students who opt not to use vouchers and stay in public schools.</p>
<p>Private school vouchers are, however, a contentious topic. Opponents of vouchers and school choice policies more generally argue that they put traditional public schools at a <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/state-policymakers-should-reject-k-12-school-voucher-plans">financial disadvantage</a>. Critics have also noted that some of the early voucher advocates viewed them as a way to <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2017/7/23/21107262/critics-of-vouchers-say-they-re-marred-by-racism-and-exacerbate-segregation-are-they-right">avoid racial integration</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, school choice can theoretically lead to sorting, where higher-achieving or higher-income students group together, and this can be detrimental to lower-achieving students who are left behind. There is <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/jel.20150679">evidence of sorting like this</a>, particularly in large-scale voucher systems outside the U.S. </p>
<p>Florida’s newly expanded model of school choice is <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/florida-just-became-the-nations-biggest-school-choice-laboratory/">one of the most comprehensive</a> in the country. <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/23689496/school-choice-education-savings-accounts-american-federation-children">Several other states</a> have also recently revised their school choice policies, generally extending eligibility for vouchers and education savings accounts beyond needy populations. In time, we can expect the evidence on school choice to grow substantially and perhaps occupy more attention in future debates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With Donald Trump absent again, Republican presidential hopefuls took potshots at each other but agreed that Bidenomics isn’t cutting it.Ryan Herzog, Associate Professor of Economics, Gonzaga UniversityCeleste K. Carruthers, Professor of Economics, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071032023-06-07T13:23:25Z2023-06-07T13:23:25ZOklahoma OKs the nation’s first religious charter school – but litigation is likely to follow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530470/original/file-20230607-19-tzkryd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C3%2C2111%2C1406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Courts have wrestled with questions about public funds for students at religious schools for decades.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/catholic-school-royalty-free-image/539002989?phrase=catholic+school&adppopup=true">Godong/Stone via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>U.S. courts have long wrestled with the extent to which government funding <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">can be used at private religious schools</a>. And on June 5, 2023, Oklahoma’s five-person Statewide Virtual Charter School Board pushed this much-debated question into new territory by approving plans for a religious charter school – the first in the nation.</p>
<p>Under the proposed charter, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School plans to open in the fall of 2024 with up to 500 <a href="https://www.kgou.org/2023-06-05/oklahoma-charter-school-board-approves-application-for-nations-first-publicly-funded-religious-school">K-12 students</a> from across the state. The school would be run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, but, like all charter schools, would be paid for with taxpayer dollars.</p>
<p>School choice advocates have <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">won key cases at the Supreme Court</a> in recent years, opening up more ways for public dollars to support faith-based education. A charter school – privately operated, but publicly funded – would be the most dramatic of these challenges to how the separation of church and state applies to education.</p>
<p>“The approval of any publicly funded religious school is contrary to Oklahoma law and not in the best interest of taxpayers,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement <a href="https://apnews.com/article/religious-charter-school-oklahoma-be6e51ffcdaeb393c4be34a6f27feba4?user_email=749e9d2568002efab588f57f3ab140bff3f59d39817c4f7cc52171bc9a261656&utm_medium=Morning_Wire&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_campaign=MorningWire_June06_2023&utm_term=Morning%20Wire%20Subscribers">after the Monday vote</a>, warning that the board and state will likely face legal challenges.</p>
<p>The key question is not whether a charter would help or harm local education, but whether explicitly religious instruction at charter schools is constitutional, given <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">the First Amendment’s</a> protections against government establishment of religion. Moreover, Oklahoma law <a href="https://oksenate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/os70.pdf">requires charter schools to be nonsectarian</a>.</p>
<h2>Recent trend</h2>
<p>Advocates of <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-opening-the-door-to-faith-based-charter-schools/">expanding public funding to faith-based schools</a> have been encouraged by three recent Supreme Court cases that upheld greater aid to their students. </p>
<p>All three of these cases relied on a legal idea <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/872266049">I have written about</a> called the “child benefit test.” Essentially, according to this concept, it is constitutional under some circumstances to provide public funds to students who attend faith-based private schools or their parents – but not directly to the schools, as would happen with Oklahoma’s charter school.</p>
<p>The first of these decisions, 2017’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/15-577">Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer</a>, dealt with a private Christian preschool that was denied public grants to update its playground. School administrators sued, arguing that denying generally available funding constituted religious discrimination in violation of the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of religion. The high court agreed.</p>
<p>Three years later, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/18-1195">Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue</a> further opened up government aid to private religious school pupils, relying on Trinity Lutheran. A 5-4 court ruled that Montana’s tax credit program for parents sending their children to independent schools must apply even if those schools are faith-based.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530475/original/file-20230607-23-z1rail.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The back of a school bus seen driving along an autumn country road." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530475/original/file-20230607-23-z1rail.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530475/original/file-20230607-23-z1rail.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530475/original/file-20230607-23-z1rail.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530475/original/file-20230607-23-z1rail.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530475/original/file-20230607-23-z1rail.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530475/original/file-20230607-23-z1rail.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530475/original/file-20230607-23-z1rail.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Heading to a religious school or a secular one?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/school-bus-on-country-road-royalty-free-image/AB07269?phrase=school+bus&adppopup=true">Stephen Simpson/Stone via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In 2022, the court extended this perspective in a case from Maine, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/20-1088">Carson v. Makin</a>. Maine, with its low population density, pays parents in areas lacking their own public schools to either transport their children to nearby public schools or a secular private school. The Supreme Court found that <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">this program should apply</a> to parents without a local public school who wish to send their child to a religious school as well.</p>
<h2>Rethinking church and state?</h2>
<p>By expanding the boundaries of permissible aid, these three cases have boosted proponents’ hopes for even greater public funding for faith-based schools.</p>
<p>Yet, it is important to keep in mind what likely prompted these changes in the first place: new faces on the Supreme Court. A majority of today’s justices tend to favor an “<a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/825/accommodationism-and-religion#:%7E:text=Accommodationism%20rests%20on%20the%20belief,or%20government%20hostility%20toward%20religion.">accommodationists</a>” interpretation of the First Amendment, meaning they largely reject the idea that it demands a “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/separation_of_church_and_state">wall of separation</a>” between church and state, so long as the government is not privileging one faith over another. </p>
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<span class="caption">New justices, new views.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/supreme-court-and-cherry-blossoms-royalty-free-image/1399070257?phrase=supreme+court&adppopup=true">John Baggaley/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Nevertheless, the parameters of the “child benefit test” often used to justify greater public funding has been evolving for years. The concept – one that legal scholars use to describe the Supreme Court’s arguments, not a term the court has used itself – first emerged in a 1947 dispute from New Jersey, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/330/1">Everson v. Board of Education</a>. In Everson, the court upheld a state statute that allowed local school boards to transport students to faith-based schools – mostly Roman Catholic ones – reasoning that the students, not the schools themselves, were the primary beneficiaries of state aid.</p>
<p>In another illustrative case, 2002’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-1751.ZO.html">Zelman v. Simmons-Harris</a>, the Supreme Court allowed parents whose children attended Cleveland’s public school system, which was then failing state standards, to use public vouchers to attend faith-based schools instead. A majority of justices upheld the program’s constitutionality because, again, students were the primary beneficiaries, not the religious schools themselves.</p>
<h2>Eyes on Oklahoma</h2>
<p>Today, in what may be the largest expansion of the child benefit test, legislators in various states are considering laws to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/08/school-choice-vouchers-private-religious-school-huckabee-sanders/">expand how parents can participate in public education fund programs</a> even if their children attend private religious schools, such as by broadening voucher or tax-credit programs. However, the Oklahoma proposal was the first to consider establishing a charter school with religious instruction and standards. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/charter-school">Charters</a>, which trace their origins to Minnesota in 1991, are publicly funded and part of local school districts, yet free from many regulations, such as standards about curricular content and teacher qualifications. The idea of <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/why-not-religious-charter-schools">faith-based charters</a> has attracted proponents for more than 20 years, but they have had little success until Oklahoma’s – which may never materialize, given the potential legal challenges. Americans United for Separation of Church and State <a href="https://www.4029tv.com/article/oklahoma-catholic-charter-school/44107888#">has already announced</a> it will “take all possible legal action to fight this decision and defend the separation of church and state that’s promised in both the Oklahoma and U.S. constitutions.”</p>
<p>Even the board that eventually approved St. Isidore, which is responsible for approving the state’s charter schools, was initially skeptical. On April 11, 2023, members unanimously voted <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/04/12/oklahoma-religious-charter-school-catholic/">to reject the original proposal</a>. However, the board gave organizers 30 days to <a href="https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-state-board-rejects-proposal-public-catholic-charter-school/43570335">revise the proposal and try again</a>. The second attempt in June succeeded in a 3-2 vote.</p>
<p>If other states authorize faith-based charters, the new schools will likely be a boon to their religious organizers by facilitating students’ ability to attend. Proponents of charters, whether traditional or faith-based, support them as part of the larger school choice movement that seeks to give parents in failing districts opportunities to move their children into better schools without paying private school tuition.</p>
<p>Faith-based charters are likely to raise headaches for their supporters, too. Because charters must still comply with some state standards, faith-based charters could be subject to greater government oversight about issues such as policies on LGBTQ+ students and staff – <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/supreme-court-ruling-brings-an-altered-legal-landscape-for-school-choice/">a longtime sticking point</a> – or accepting <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/charter-schools-more-likely-to-ignore-special-education-applicants-study-finds/2018/12">students with disabilities</a>. And it remains to be seen whether proponents of a Catholic charter school would be as supportive if a minority faith group proposed one.</p>
<p>While this legal battle is just heating up, I believe it has the potential to reshape public education as we have known it.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/plans-for-religious-charter-school-though-rejected-for-now-are-already-pushing-church-state-debates-into-new-territory-203541">an article originally published on April 17, 2023</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207103/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The school’s approval may be the strongest challenge yet to limits on public money in religious schools.Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences and Research Professor of Law, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2035412023-04-17T12:44:43Z2023-04-17T12:44:43ZPlans for religious charter school, though rejected for now, are already pushing church-state debates into new territory<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520120/original/file-20230411-24-1a1qsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C9%2C2106%2C1398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Would religious charter schools be constitutional? More advocates are pushing to find out.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/praying-together-in-a-bible-study-royalty-free-image/505827292?phrase=god%20school&adppopup=true">FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>An updated version of this article was published on June 7, 2023. <a href="https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-oks-the-nations-first-religious-charter-school-but-litigation-is-likely-to-follow-207103">Read it here</a>.</em></p>
<p>U.S. courts have long wrestled with the extent to which government funding can be used at private religious schools. School-choice advocates <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">have won key cases at the Supreme Court</a> in recent years, opening up more ways for public dollars to support faith-based education. But Oklahoma <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/oklahoma-eyes-first-us-religious-charter-school-after-supreme-court-rulings-2023-04-06/">pushed the debate into unchartered territory</a> this spring with a proposal for a school that would have been the first of its kind: a Catholic charter, primarily paid for by taxpayers.</p>
<p>On April 11, 2023, the five-person board responsible for approving Oklahoma charters unanimously voted <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/04/12/oklahoma-religious-charter-school-catholic/">to reject the proposal</a>, due to concerns about its governance structure and plans for special education students, <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/education/2023/04/11/oklahoma-statewide-virtual-charter-school-board-rejects-catholic-school-vote/70100040007/">among other issues</a>. However, it gave organizers 30 days to <a href="https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-state-board-rejects-proposal-public-catholic-charter-school/43570335">revise the proposal and try again</a>.</p>
<p>Charter schools, which are publicly funded but generally run by independent organizations, have attracted ardent fans and foes <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/09/02/160409742/from-a-single-charter-school-a-movement-grows">since they started in the early 1990s</a>. Yet the key question in this case is not whether a charter would help or harm local education, but whether explicitly religious instruction at charter schools is constitutional, given <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">the First Amendment’s</a> protections against government establishment of religion.</p>
<p>In late 2022, the then-attorney general of Oklahoma <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/education/2022/12/02/oklahoma-ag-releases-opinion-on-religious-charter-schools/69695429007/">argued that</a> a state law barring faith-based charter schools was actually unconstitutional. The new attorney general who took office in January 2023 <a href="https://kfor.com/news/local/ag-drummond-rescinds-oconnor-era-opinion-on-religious-institution-charter-schools/">soon rescinded the opinion</a>, leaving the charter school proposal in legal limbo – and making it even more likely to wind up at the Supreme Court if the school board eventually approves the charter.</p>
<h2>Recent trend</h2>
<p>Advocates of <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-opening-the-door-to-faith-based-charter-schools/">expanding public funding to faith-based schools</a> were encouraged by three recent Supreme Court cases that upheld greater aid to their students. All three of these cases relied on a legal idea <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/872266049">I have written about</a> called the “child benefit test.” Essentially, according to this concept, it is constitutional under some circumstances to provide public funds to students who attend faith-based private schools, or their parents – but not directly to the schools.</p>
<p>The first of these decisions, 2017’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/15-577">Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer</a>, dealt with a private Christian preschool that was denied public grants to update its playground. School administrators sued, arguing that to deny generally available funding constituted religious discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of religion. The high court agreed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a suit speaks in front of a crowd in front of the Supreme Court, with people holding up balloons that spell out 'fair play' behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Faith & Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed speaks in front of the Supreme Court before arguments in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/faith-freedom-coalition-chairman-ralph-reed-speaks-during-a-news-photo/670245268?adppopup=true">Mark Wilson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Three years later, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/18-1195">Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue</a> further opened up government aid to private religious school pupils, relying on the Trinity Lutheran decision. A 5-4 majority ruled that Montana’s tax credit program for parents sending their children to independent schools must apply even if those schools are faith-based.</p>
<p>In 2022, the Court extended this perspective in a case from Maine, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/20-1088">Carson v. Makin</a>. Maine, with its low population density, pays parents in areas lacking their own public schools to either transport their children to nearby public schools or a secular private school. The Supreme Court found that <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">this program should apply</a> to parents without a local public school who wish to send their child to a religious school, as well.</p>
<h2>Rethinking church and state?</h2>
<p>By expanding the boundaries of permissible aid, these three cases have boosted proponents’ hopes for even greater public funding for private faith-based schools – and now, with the charter proposal, hopes that there might be a path ahead for public religious schools, entirely paid for with taxpayer money. Yet, it is important to keep in mind what likely prompted these changes in the first place: new faces on the Supreme Court. A majority of today’s justices tend to favor an “<a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/825/accommodationism-and-religion#:%7E:text=Accommodationism%20rests%20on%20the%20belief,or%20government%20hostility%20toward%20religion.">accommodationists</a>” interpretation of the First Amendment, meaning they largely reject the idea that it demands a “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/separation_of_church_and_state">wall of separation</a>” between church and state, so long as the government is not privileging one faith over another. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the parameters of the “child benefit test” often used to justify greater public funding has been evolving for years. The concept – which is one that legal scholars use to describe the Supreme Court’s arguments, not a term the court has used itself – first emerged in a 1947 dispute from New Jersey, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/330/1">Everson v. Board of Education</a>. In that case, the court upheld a state statute that allowed local school boards to transport students to faith-based schools – mostly Roman Catholic ones – reasoning that the students, not the schools themselves, were the primary beneficiaries of state aid.</p>
<p>In another illustrative case, 2002’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-1751.ZO.html">Zelman v. Simmons-Harris</a>, the Supreme Court allowed parents whose children attended Cleveland’s public school system, which was then failing state standards, to use public vouchers to attend faith-based schools. A majority of justices upheld the program’s constitutionality because, again, students were the primary beneficiaries, not the religious schools themselves. Moreover, students attended these schools as a result of their parents’ free choices, not because doing so was required by the state.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two rows of people in black robes pose for a formal portrait in front of red velvety curtains." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A changing court means changing interpretations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/justices-of-the-us-supreme-court-pose-for-their-official-news-photo/1243795466?adppopup=true">Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Eyes on Oklahoma</h2>
<p>Now, in what may be the largest expansion of the child benefit test, legislators in various states are considering laws to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/08/school-choice-vouchers-private-religious-school-huckabee-sanders/">expand how parents can participate in public education fund programs</a> even if their children attend private religious schools, such as by broadening voucher or tax-credit programs. The Oklahoma proposal, however, had been the first to consider establishing a charter school with religious instruction and standards. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/charter-school">Charters</a>, which trace their origins to Minnesota in 1991, are publicly funded and part of local school districts, yet free from many regulations, such as standards about curricular content and teacher qualifications. The idea of <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/why-not-religious-charter-schools">faith-based charters</a> has attracted proponents for more than 20 years, but they have had little success. If the proponents of the Catholic proposal in Oklahoma reapply to the school board and eventually succeed, it would likely encourage similar approaches elsewhere.</p>
<p>If states authorize faith-based charters, the new schools will likely be a boon to their religious groups and facilitate more students’ ability to attend. Proponents of charters, whether traditional or faith-based, support them as part of the larger school choice movement that seeks to give parents in failing districts opportunities to move their children into better schools without paying private school tuition.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, faith-based charters are likely to raise new headaches for their supporters, too. Charters are largely exempt from some state standards, but not all, and faith-based schools that converted into charters could be subject to greater government oversight about issues such as policies on LGBTQ+ students and staff – <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/supreme-court-ruling-brings-an-altered-legal-landscape-for-school-choice/">a longtime sticking point</a> – or having to accept <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/charter-schools-more-likely-to-ignore-special-education-applicants-study-finds/2018/12">students with disabilities</a>, just as all public schools do.</p>
<p>While this legal battle is just heating up, it has the potential to reshape public education as we have known it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Using public funds to support students at private religious schools is one thing, but establishing faith-based institutions within public districts is another.Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences and Research Professor of Law, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2008882023-04-11T20:32:11Z2023-04-11T20:32:11ZAdding charter schools to Ontario would exacerbate student inequities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519396/original/file-20230404-14-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C53%2C3972%2C2324&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School closures related to labour disputes and the pandemic prompted some commentators to call for charter schools. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents and other advocates who are dissatisfied with the current state of public schooling often call for the expansion of school choice. </p>
<p>In Ontario, this erupted following school closures <a href="https://financialpost.com/opinion/cupe-strike-school-choice-ontario-education">as a result of labour disputes</a> and COVID-19. Some commentators <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/heres-what-school-choice-in-ontario-could-look-like-for-parents">and think tanks have suggested</a> charter schooling is a viable option for students in Ontario. <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charter-schools#:%7E:text=Alberta%20is%20the%20only%20province,and%20permit%20more%20parental%20choice.">Alberta is the only province in Canada to have charter schools</a> and has had them for nearly 30 years. </p>
<p><a href="https://openlibrary-repo.ecampusontario.ca/jspui/handle/123456789/673">Charter schools</a> are a specific type of alternative education that is publicly funded in a manner specified in the school’s charter. Their governance is handled by charter board members, as opposed to the local school board — a significant distinction from other alternative schools. </p>
<p>Typically, the charter board consists of parents, instructors and community members, whereas other public schools are governed by officials elected by public vote. Charter schools are in charge of all their own hires and admissions, and report directly to the government.</p>
<p>School choice already abounds in Ontario. No compelling evidence exists that adding choice in the form of charter schools will bolster student achievement. Adding charter schools would likely contribute both to segregating students by race and socio-economic status, and <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/calgary-charter-schools-await-ucp-funding#">creating elite schools that cherry pick their students</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sign for a charter academy school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Does Ontario really need more school choice in the form of charter schools? A sign for a charter academy school in Winterville, N.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Justin Lundy/WITN-TV via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Existing choice in Ontario</h2>
<p>School choice can take many forms, and in Canada it has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423921000901">typically been developed within the public system</a>.<br>
In Ontario, school choice within the public system includes the <a href="https://www.ocsta.on.ca/catholic-schools-in-ontario/">publicly funded Catholic system</a>, <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/french-second-language-programs">French immersion</a>, the <a href="https://www.ontarioschools.org/TalentedandGifted.aspx">gifted program</a> and an array of <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/alternativeschools/#%22%22">alternative schools</a>. There are also <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/private-schools-0">over 1,300 private</a> school options available to parents in the province. </p>
<p>However, unlike <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/program-management/independent-schools/funding">British Columbia</a> and <a href="https://ecolespriveesquebec.ca/en/private-school/faq/">Québec</a>, there exists no subsidy system for private schooling in Ontario. In British Columbia, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-private-schools-491-million-public-funding-1.6589571">the provincial government subsidizes the cost of private schooling</a>, covering between 35 per cent and 50 per cent of tuition. </p>
<p>Similarly in Québec, <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-brace-for-more-inequality-in-education-under-bill-96">the provincial government generously funds privates schools</a>. In Ontario and other provinces, parents who choose private schools foot the entire bill. </p>
<h2>For the wealthy?</h2>
<p>Introducing private competition with the public system <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819874756">reveals only very small improvements in school achievement</a> when data across the United States are analyzed. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19367244211003471">No comparable data</a> are available to analyze in Canada.</p>
<p>Critics argue school choice does <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/heres-what-school-choice-in-ontario-could-look-like-for-parents">not only have to be for the wealthy</a> and <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/agar-supporting-education-vouchers-is-putting-children-first">voucher systems</a> or <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-school-choice">charter schools</a> could provide an avenue for low- to middle-income families to choose the type of education their children receive.</p>
<p>However, instead of being the great equalizer, there is considerable evidence that school choice actually exacerbates existing inequities, especially race and <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-policies-are-associated-with-increased-separation-of-students-by-social-class-149902">socio-economic</a> inequities. </p>
<p>Boards like the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) have alternative schools or specialty programs that offer a great deal of choice. Many of these speciality programs <a href="https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v7i2.421">have also been found to exacerbate existing inequities</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen walking in front of a school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Data from Ontario show that significant inequality exists when there are coveted spots within the public system for schools of choice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Demographic homogeneity</h2>
<p>For example, a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.2716">study on</a> specialty arts programs in the TDSB found that students were disproportionately white, wealthier and more likely to have parents who had gone to university. </p>
<p>The study found that the demographic homogeneity of the school environments contributes to continued structural inequities. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/french-immersion-and-other-regional-learning-programs-smart-choice-for-your-kids-or-do-they-fuel-inequity-195184">French immersion and other regional learning programs: Smart choice for your kids, or do they fuel inequity?</a>
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<p>Data from Ontario show that significant inequality exists when there are coveted spots within the existing public system for schools of choice. The TDSB <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-tdsb-specialized-school-programs/">created a lottery system</a> to address this — but recent reports said the board discovered there was an <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/racialized-disabled-and-lgbtq-students-excluded-from-tdsb-elementary-lottery-1.6344461">oversight when administering the lottery and prioritized students were excluded from it</a>.</p>
<p>How would adding charter schools level the playing field? </p>
<h2>Data from the U.S.</h2>
<p>In comparably diverse American cities with public, private and charter schools, more evidence to the contrary exists. Examining <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED613612.pdf">data from New York City</a> on private and public school enrolment shows high levels of school racial segregation. </p>
<p>In NYC, approximately 14 per cent of students attend private schools, while 77 per cent attend public district schools and nine per cent attend charter schools.</p>
<p>Although charter schools make up nine per cent of the student population in NYC, 54 per cent of charter school students are Black, 39 per cent are Hispanic and five per cent are white. In contrast, white students make up 69 per cent of private school population, while Black students make up 11 per cent.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-cyber-charter-schools-are-and-why-their-growth-should-worry-us-68471">What cyber charter schools are and why their growth should worry us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The research on whether charter schools improve student achievement is extremely mixed. An <a href="https://public-schools.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/PrivatizingPublicChoice-ThePastPresentandFutureofCharteSchoolsinAlberta.pdf">overview</a> of the American data suggests that students in public and charter schools perform at similar levels. </p>
<p>The same report also showed that there is considerable evidence that charter schools exacerbate existing racial, ethnic and socio-economic segregation in the U.S. There is not much evidence that the expansion of the charter system in the U.S. spurred innovation and competition in the public sector and improved education across the board.</p>
<h2>High test scores needed?</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A hand seen writing a test on a classroom desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Some charter schools have been found to prevent students with disabilities from enrolling as a strategy to keep test scores high.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Since charter schools are at a risk of closure when they do not perform adequately, there is a lot of pressure to achieve and maintain high test scores. </p>
<p>Charter schools have <a href="https://raceandschools.barnard.edu/charterschools/disabilities/">been found</a> to prevent students with disabilities from enrolling as a strategy to keep test scores high. </p>
<p>The lack of accountability and transparency from charter schools in the U.S. has led some organizations focussed around racial justice to support a <a href="https://naacp.org/resources/calling-moratorium-charter-school-expansion-and-strengthening-oversight-governance-and">moratorium</a> on charter schools.</p>
<h2>Achievement in Alberta</h2>
<p>Alberta, like Ontario, also enjoys considerable <a href="https://www.albertaschoolcouncils.ca/education-in-alberta/education-options">choice within the public system</a>, including through charter schools. CBC reported in March that around <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-s-education-budget-features-new-schools-and-replacements-first-charter-school-hub-1.6765068">20,000 students are on wait lists for charter schools</a> in the province, following the province’s removal of <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7000587/alberta-government-ucp-charter-schools-home-schooling-education-may/">a cap on them in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>There are, however, no public reports that provide any evidence that students in Alberta’s charter schools are doing better than their peers elsewhere in the public system. </p>
<p>Adding additional mechanisms to exacerbate inequality in the name of “choice” in Ontario will do nothing for overall student achievement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Robson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rochelle Wijesingha is affiliated with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Association. She is the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator.</span></em></p>School choice already abounds in Ontario. Adding charter schooling in the name of ‘choice’ won’t help student achievement.Karen Robson, Ontario Research Chair in Academic Achievement and At-Risk Youth, McMaster UniversityRochelle Wijesingha, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2011342023-03-22T12:38:51Z2023-03-22T12:38:51ZThis course uses ‘Abbott Elementary’ to examine critical issues in urban education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516705/original/file-20230321-2560-fsrmj6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C2%2C676%2C380&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The hit TV show 'Abbott Elementary' explores a variety of issues in education.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://deadline.com/2022/07/abbott-elementary-season-2-episode-count-full-season-abc-comic-con-quina-brunson-1235074396/">ABC</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>“Public Education’s Possibilities and Predicaments: Exploring Portrayals of Critical Issues in ‘Abbott Elementary’”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>When the first episodes of “Abbott Elementary” aired in January 2022 and the show began getting widespread <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/arts/television/abbott-elementary.html">praise</a>, I started having interesting conversations with folks about schools and teaching based on what they had seen on the show. After episodes aired, colleagues, friends and neighbors all wanted to talk about issues like funding inequities, teacher shortages and charter schools.</p>
<p>I began thinking about how the show integrates commentary on these critical issues into its lighthearted “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/abc-s-abbott-elementary-mockumentary-genre-are-match-made-tv-ncna1288793">mockumentary</a>” style, simultaneously entertaining viewers and inviting them to consider their own perceptions of urban public schools. As a show <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-01-11/quinta-brunson-was-a-scaredy-cat-then-she-met-the-teacher-who-inspired-her-sitcom">inspired by a Black female teacher</a>, created by a Black female writer, Quinta Brunson, and led by a predominantly Black cast, it also tells the stories of an urban school in a way that highlights the humanity of students, teachers and communities who have elsewhere been portrayed negatively.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman wearing a yellow dress stands at the microphone holding a trophy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Quinta Brunson, creator of ‘Abbott Elementary,’ accepts the award for Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series during the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 4, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/quinta-brunson-accepts-the-best-lead-performance-in-a-new-news-photo/1471299603?phrase=Abbott%20Elementary&adppopup=true">Kevin Winter for Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>I wanted to design a course that would use the show as an entry point to critical conversations, connecting the issues in each episode to research and policy.</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>First, students are introduced to various education issues by reading selected academic book chapters and research articles. We explore how they have seen this issue portrayed in news coverage, television shows and movies. For example, we begin by taking a look at the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/12/10/americas-public-school-teachers-are-far-less-racially-and-ethnically-diverse-than-their-students/">racial demographics of teachers and students</a>, particularly in urban schools.</p>
<p>According to the National Center for Education Statistics:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Overall, only 7% of public school teachers are Black, whereas 80% are white.</p></li>
<li><p>In urban public schools, 12% of teachers are Black, compared with 69% who are white.</p></li>
<li><p>In public schools with more than 90% of racial minority students, 20% of teachers are Black and only 43% are white.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We also look at the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1020655307664">portrayal of urban teachers in film</a>. The teacher-heroes of these films are generally white, middle-class outsiders. They are new to the school – or teaching, in general – and, through individual effort and a positive outlook, are able to transform a group of troubled students whom all the veteran teachers had failed.</p>
<p>We also use relevant episodes to explore issues such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001440290807400302">gifted programs</a>, the <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/709513">charter school movement</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X12473125">school discipline</a> and more.</p>
<p>At the end of the course, students work in groups to craft a pitch for a future episode of “Abbott Elementary” that addresses an issue not yet addressed by the show.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/11/abbott-elementarys-s2-premiere-breaks-records-for-abc.html">Millions of viewers</a> are tuning in each week to watch “Abbott Elementary.” It is a pop culture moment. However, the relevance of this course is not limited to the show’s popularity. Public education affects everyone. Education policies, such as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critical-race-theory-curriculum-transparency-rcna12809">what should or should not be taught</a> in schools, and <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/2_sc.asp">school choice</a> initiatives, including increasing the number of charter schools and providing vouchers for students to attend private schools, continue to be at the forefront of local, state and national politics.</p>
<p>This course is relevant because it creates a space for students to learn more about these issues and engage in informed, critical discussions through an accessible medium.</p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>While many issues, like school funding or discipline, are central to a single episode, the issue of charter schools is an <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/how-abbott-elementary-takes-on-the-charter-school-movement">overarching plot line</a> throughout Season Two. Understanding how charter schools operate, why they are marketed as a solution to troubled public schools and how they affect communities are all critical lessons from this course. </p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Anti-Racist-Educational-Leadership-and-Policy-Addressing-Racism-in-Public/Diem-Welton/p/book/9781138596993#">Anti-Racist Educational Leadership and Policy</a>,” a 2021 book co-authored by University of Missouri education professor Sara Diem and University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor Anjale Welton. The book breaks down complex policy issues by analyzing how policies address or fail to address racial equity.</p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.hepg.org/hep-home/books/start-where-you-are,-but-don%E2%80%99t-stay-there-(1)">Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There</a>,” an award-winning 2020 book by Vanderbilt University education professor H. Richard Milner IV. The book deals with what teachers and school leaders must know to effectively serve students of color. </p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/237679/for-white-folks-who-teach-in-the-hood-and-the-rest-of-yall-too-by-christopher-emdin/">For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood … and the Rest of Y'all Too</a>,” a 2016 book by University of Southern California education professor Christopher Emdin. Among the insights the book offers are those on how teachers can better relate to and motivate young students of color.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>When it comes to education issues, it can often feel like you have to be either for or against something – whether that something is charter schools, teachers unions, or zero-tolerance discipline policies. This binary thinking can’t accurately represent the nuance and messiness that is the reality of public education.</p>
<p>By integrating the pop culture perspective of “Abbott Elementary” with interdisciplinary scholarly perspectives, students will learn how to take a more critical and nuanced look at education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An education professor explains how a hit TV show about a struggling school became a jumping-off point for a course about urban education.Sara Jones, Assistant Professor of Elementary Education—Literacy, Illinois State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962612023-03-08T13:41:29Z2023-03-08T13:41:29ZSchool choice proposals rarely go before voters – and typically fail when they do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511488/original/file-20230221-28-x0c9n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C38%2C8523%2C5652&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks to supporters before signing a bill that creates education savings accounts in January 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PrivateSchoolsStateFunding/ab75378b2d084cfeb077faa3cae7b3d7/photo">AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arizona lawmakers decided in late 2022 that the <a href="https://news.azpm.org/p/news-splash/2022/12/10/214078-not-quite-universal-but-families-flocked-to-universal-voucher-program/">state will pay tuition, related education expenses or both</a> for children at any school parents select, including private and religious schools.</p>
<p>It’s the latest step in an effort to provide public funds for private schools that in Arizona began in 2011. And that step was taken along what I have discovered to be a familiar route.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KLVtdQYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education policy researcher</a>, I wanted to understand why these voucher programs are becoming more common despite evidence they <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-vouchers-expand-despite-evidence-of-negative-effects-117370">do not improve, and may even impede, students’ educational achievement</a>. Rather than put the question of whether to use public money for private schools before voters, advocates for choice almost always want state legislatures to make the decision instead. That may be because a careful look at the efforts suggests that if it were up to voters, school choice proposals would rarely succeed.</p>
<p>Lawmakers in <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/iowa-lawmakers-approves-public-money-for-private-school-students">Iowa</a>, <a href="https://alec.org/article/victory-for-west-virginia-families-historic-education-opportunity-program-declared-constitutional/">West Virginia</a> and <a href="https://www.education.nh.gov/news/second-year-education-freedom-accounts-prospering">New Hampshire</a> all recently passed plans similar to Arizona’s. In 2022, <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/betsy-devos-let-mi-kids-learn-scholarship-plan-submit-signatures">Michigan advocates – led by former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos</a> – chose to <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/10/let-mi-kids-learn-signatures-devos/10285200002/">petition legislators</a> to approve <a href="https://www.letmikidslearn.com/">such a plan</a> for over a million children, rather than seeking a public referendum on the issue.</p>
<p>Private and religious schools have traditionally been prohibited from receiving taxpayer dollars. But since <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice-in-america-dashboard-scia/">private school-choice programs</a> began in the 1990s, 32 states and the District of Columbia have adopted 76 school voucher or voucherlike programs that allow families to send their children to private schools at public expense, according to the pro-voucher group <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice-in-america-dashboard-scia/">EdChoice</a>. Additionally, <a href="https://charterschoolcenter.ed.gov/charter-schools-usa">45 states and Washington, D.C.</a>, have charter school programs, which are publicly funded but privately managed.</p>
<p>But of those 121 programs, only two have been approved by voters. The issue has been brought to referendum in various states 16 times since Michigan first voted on it in 1978 and has been rejected 14 times. In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/education/future-of-georgias-charter-schools-on-ballot.html">2012</a>, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Georgia_Charter_Schools,_Amendment_1_(2012)">Georgia voters</a> enabled state lawmakers to authorize charter schools, and Washington state voters <a href="https://dev.ballotpedia.org/Washington_Charter_School_Initiative,_Initiative_1240_(2012)">barely passed</a> a charter school initiative they <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/big-money-pushing-for-wash-charter-schools-gates-out-in-front/">had rejected twice before</a>.</p>
<h2>Parents’ interest growing</h2>
<p>Parents are taking advantage of those opportunities. There are <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/education-statistics-facts-about-american-schools/2019/01">50 million public school students</a> in grades K-12 in the U.S., of whom 3.4 million attend charter schools. About 5.5 million students are in private schools. The numbers are proportionately small, but growing.</p>
<p>For instance, from 2000 to 2016, the U.S. Department of Education reported the number of students in charter schools <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019106.pdf">increased more than fivefold</a>.</p>
<h2>Pressure on public schools</h2>
<p>Advocates for public schools argue that when public money is spent on private schools, it “<a href="https://networkforpubliceducation.org/privatization-toolkit/">[siphons] off students, resources and funding</a>” from public schools.</p>
<p>But supporters say voucher programs <a href="https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/here-are-10-reasons-school-choice-winning">usefully pressure public schools to improve</a> under threat of losing enrollment and funding.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/6540">still others</a> emphasize distinctions between <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/education/interactive-guide-to-school-choice.aspx">different types</a> of choice programs, <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/for-profit-charter-schools-evaluation-spending-outcomes">regulations and funding schemes</a>. For instance, some people support publicly funded charter schools as options within the public school system, but do not support vouchers allowing families to take tax dollars to help pay for private schools.</p>
<h2>Referendums failed</h2>
<p>The process by which these programs have become law started <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Michigan_Education_Funds_Amendment,_Proposal_H_(1978)">in 1978 in Michigan</a> with petitions and referendums, but they largely failed. That 1978 proposal sought a statewide referendum to create vouchers and got on the ballot but was <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Michigan_Education_Funds_Amendment,_Proposal_H_(1978)">rejected by a 3-to-1 margin</a>. A very similar Michigan petition drive in 2000 failed by a <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/3208">similarly large margin</a>. Referendum efforts in 2000 in California, and one in Utah in 2007, <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2008/04/01/an-idea-whose-time-has-gone/">also failed</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, more recent efforts aim to go through the legislature – even if laws that have passed have also been overturned by referendums later.</p>
<p>For instance, a 2017 Arizona law would have allowed students to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2017/04/07/arizona-gov-doug-ducey-signs-school-voucher-expansion/100159192/">use taxpayer dollars at private schools</a>. But before it could take effect, a petition drive gave voters a chance to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/06/arizona-prop-305-results-voters-decide-school-vouchers/1809291002/">overturn the law</a>, which they did in 2018, by a <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/state/arizona-proposition-305-fails-reducing-school-vouchers-available-to-families">two-thirds majority</a>. </p>
<p>In 2022, state lawmakers passed an almost identical bill, and as he had in 2017, Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2022/07/07/ariz-governor-signs-universal-school-voucher-law-advocates-vow-fight/7827019001/">signed it into law on July 7, 2022</a>. A second petition drive to reverse it <a href="https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2022/09/30/petition-to-block-voucher-law-falls-short-application-deadline-extended/">failed to round up nearly 120,000 signatures</a> before the legal deadline, and the law took effect.</p>
<h2>A new effort in Michigan</h2>
<p>But in 2022, a new petition drive arose, backed by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a Michigan native and former state Republican Party chair. Instead of asking voters to approve the idea, however, it used a <a href="https://crcmich.org/michigans-citizen-initiative-petition-process-in-2022-a-lot-of-ballot-proposals">provision of Michigan law</a> that meant the petition <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/betsy-devos-let-mi-kids-learn-scholarship-plan-submit-signatures">positioned legislators to pass the law themselves</a>. </p>
<p>That process sought to preempt another referendum on school choice, as well as a <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2021/11/1/22758182/michigan-voucher-proponents-plan-petition-to-circumvent-veto">likely veto</a> from Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.</p>
<p>When voters flipped control of the Michigan Legislature from Republican to Democratic in November 2022, <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/9/23547548/michigan-devos-school-choice-private-schools-petitions-withdrawn-let-mi-kids-learn">DeVos’ group withdrew its petition</a>, effectively killing the proposal.</p>
<p>The next time a school choice program is put before lawmakers, it’s worth asking whether the program would pass if it were put before voters. History shows the answer is usually a resounding “no.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Lubienski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most school-choice programs in the US have been approved by lawmakers. But when asked for their views, voters have overwhelmingly rejected them.Christopher Lubienski, Professor of Education Policy, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1765042022-02-22T13:43:03Z2022-02-22T13:43:03ZHow teachers enter the profession affects how long they stay on the job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446358/original/file-20220214-103533-q5b7zd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C0%2C5472%2C3579&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers with traditional certifications are more likely to continue teaching than those with alternative certifications. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/first-day-of-school-at-los-angeles-unified-school-district-news-photo/1234721743?adppopup=true">Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Two major factors matter when it comes to predicting how long a new teacher will stay on the job – how they got certified and the kind of school where they first teach.</p>
<p>As researchers who study the job market for new teachers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819874754">we recently published these findings</a> based on our study of 175,664 new teachers in Texas from 2000 to 2015 in Education Policy.</p>
<p>We looked at teachers who were prepared in one of two ways: They either went to a college of education, which is the traditional route to becoming a teacher, or they got certified through an alternative certification program, which can mean they had less time in the classroom before becoming certified. Alternative certificates may be issued by universities, districts or even individual schools and typically do not require teaching degrees or traditional student teaching experiences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graphic that describes the probability of educator retention for four types of educators. Educators who are traditionally certified who work in charter schools have a 55.9% chance of staying in the field, but teachers with the same certifications who work in public schools have a 67.5% chance of staying. Educators with an alternative certifications working in charter schools have a 48.4% chance of staying in the field, and teachers with the same certification have a 60.6% of staying in the feild." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446563/original/file-20220215-15-1em0sjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446563/original/file-20220215-15-1em0sjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446563/original/file-20220215-15-1em0sjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446563/original/file-20220215-15-1em0sjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446563/original/file-20220215-15-1em0sjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446563/original/file-20220215-15-1em0sjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446563/original/file-20220215-15-1em0sjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers with traditional certifications in public schools are likely to stay in the teaching field longer than their peers with alternative certification who started out at a charter school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarah Guthery and Lauren P. Bailes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that a traditionally certified teacher in a traditional public school has a 67.5% chance of staying in education, while a teacher who went through an alternative certification program and started out at a charter school has a 48.4% chance. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Retaining new teachers is critical to addressing <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED598211.pdf">teacher shortages</a>. Our study shows that thousands of people want to be teachers, but even under the best circumstances only 61.8% will still be teaching in five years. </p>
<p>Despite schools’ desperate need for new teachers, our findings suggest that teacher retention is not based just on how they are certified or the type of school where they are placed, but a combination of the two. So policymakers and teacher preparation programs must consider carefully how to set up new teachers for long-term success.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Our study calls for a closer look at other factors that may affect how long teachers stay on the job, such as school culture, leadership and overall workplace satisfaction.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 140,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Join the list today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teachers who take alternative routes to being certified tend to leave their positions sooner than educators who go through colleges of education, new research shows.Sarah Guthery, Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Texas A&M University-CommerceLauren P. Bailes, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, University of DelawareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1686172021-09-30T12:28:46Z2021-09-30T12:28:46ZWhy charter schools are not as ‘public’ as they claim to be<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423930/original/file-20210929-65683-10mjd81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C0%2C5955%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charter school enrollment reportedly grew 7% during the pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teacher-helping-student-at-classroom-using-face-royalty-free-image/1279381208?adppopup=true">FG Trade/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Proponents of charter schools insist that they are public schools “<a href="https://www.publiccharters.org/sites/default/files/migrated/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/What-is-a-Charter-School.pdf">open to all students</a>.” But the truth is more nuanced. As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-74qCF0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education policy researcher</a> – and as author of a <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/school%E2%80%99s-choice-9780807765814">new book about charter schools</a> I wrote with fellow researcher <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hU0ZOrYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Wagma Mommandi</a> – I have discovered that charter schools are not as accessible to the public as they are often made out to be.</p>
<p>This finding is particularly relevant in light of the fact that charter school enrollment <a href="https://www.k12dive.com/news/report-charter-school-enrollment-grew-7-during-pandemic/606936/">reportedly grew at a rapid rate</a> during the pandemic. Specifically, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, enrollment <a href="https://www.publiccharters.org/our-work/publications/voting-their-feet-state-level-analysis-public-charter-school-and-district">increased 7% from 2019-20 to 2020-21</a>. The organization says that is the biggest enrollment jump in a half-decade.</p>
<p>In our book, we identify and describe 13 different approaches that charters use to bring certain types of students in and push other kinds of students out.</p>
<p>Here are four examples from our book.</p>
<h2>1. Targeted marketing and advertising</h2>
<p>By using specific types of language in their promotional materials and by targeting those materials to specific audiences, charter schools often send a message that they are looking for a certain type of student. This is a way for charter schools to reach or appeal to a certain audience but not others, which in turn shapes who ends up applying to a given school.</p>
<p>For instance, Mueller Charter Leadership Academy in San Diego
<a href="https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/report-unequal-access-080116.pdf">told prospective families that</a> “All eligible students are welcome to apply. However, it should be noted that because this is a highly advanced, demanding program, it may not be appropriate for everyone.”</p>
<p>Targeted advertising can also carry a message. LISA Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2016 sent out <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160613191457/http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/local-news/charter-school-apologizes-for-recruiting-mailer">targeted recruitment mailers</a> to area neighborhoods – skipping over the three zip codes for the heavily Black and Latino parts of town.</p>
<p>“They’re sending a message they don’t want the kids on the east side of town,” Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160613191457/http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/local-news/charter-school-apologizes-for-recruiting-mailer">remarked</a> after his newspaper exposed the practice. The school later <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160613191457/http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/local-news/charter-school-apologizes-for-recruiting-mailer">apologized and explained</a> that its plan was to subsequently reach out to those populations through digital advertising.</p>
<h2>2. Conditional applications</h2>
<p>Charter schools sometimes <a href="https://www.acluaz.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/schools_choosing_students_web.pdf">require</a> multiple essays or a minimum GPA as a condition for initial or continuing enrollment.</p>
<p>Roseland Accelerated Middle School in Santa Rosa, California, for instance, required applicants to submit five short essays plus an autobiography using “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-charter-application-20160808-snap-story.html">well constructed and varied structure</a>.”</p>
<p>Minimum GPA requirements can be imposed at the application stage or once admitted. At Lushor Charter School in New Orleans, parents and students are asked to sign a contract that requires <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bismGcZXJYukiGosdkiGa_mVu73jqCoh3_IA-qwYGRA/edit">students to maintain a 2.0 GPA</a> in core subject areas for continued enrollment. </p>
<h2>3. Parents required to ‘volunteer’</h2>
<p>Some charter schools require parents to volunteer a certain amount of time at the school, or pay money in lieu of volunteering. Pembroke Pines Charter High School in Florida, for example, required each family to complete 30 such “<a href="http://academicvillage.pinescharter.net/DocumentCenter/View/519/Orientation-Packet-17-18?bidId=">volunteer hours</a>” per year, but allowed 20 of those hours to be “purchased” – US$100 total to buy out the first 10 hours and $200 more for the next 10 hours. These requirements place an additional burden, in terms of time and money, on families that are already struggling economically.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white female teacher talks to a Black student in a hallway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘No excuses’ charter schools are known for harsh discipline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/female-teacher-reprimanding-a-male-student-royalty-free-image/84463668?adppopup=true">Monkey Business Images/Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Aggressive use of discipline.</h2>
<p>At so-called “no excuses” charters that <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/i-spent-a-year-and-a-half-at-a-no-excuses-charter-school-this-is-what-i-saw">“sweat the small stuff”</a>, students have – at least historically – been subjected to <a href="https://in.chalkbeat.org/2018/6/14/21105158/known-for-no-excuses-discipline-tindley-charter-network-loosens-policies-to-reduce-suspensions">harsh discipline</a> for minor infractions, such as chewing gum or failing to constantly keep their eyes on the teacher during class.</p>
<p>Some of these schools repeatedly suspend students and call parents to leave work to pick up a suspended child. The most high-profile example is Success Academy charter school in Fort Greene, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, where school leaders created a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/nyregion/at-a-success-academy-charter-school-singling-out-pupils-who-have-got-to-go.html">Got to Go</a>” list of 16 students who were then subjected to harassing discipline. In one case, a school official threatened to call 911 on a 6-year-old because the child was having a “bad day.” Nine of the 16 students did in fact withdraw from the school. </p>
<h2>Functioning like private schools</h2>
<p>Cumulatively, these and the other approaches we detail in our book – titled <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/school%E2%80%99s-choice-9780807765814">“School’s Choice”</a> – make charter schools more like private schools than the public schools they claim to be.</p>
<p>These practices influence which students are admitted to charter schools and then stay in those schools. Charter school choice therefore affects schools’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.20226">demographics</a>, including the degree to which they are segregated. </p>
<p>They affect funding equity as well, since state school-finance formulas often don’t adequately account for the actual costs of educating different students. In Pennsylvania, for example, charter schools are funded through a <a href="https://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Charter%20School%20Funding/CSFunding%2024PS17-1725-A.pdf">system that creates problematic incentives</a> related to access for students with special needs. As explained in a <a href="https://www.delcotimes.com/2015/08/24/guest-column-the-case-for-the-wolf-recovery-plan/">report by the state’s bipartisan legislative Special Education Funding Commission</a>, the current funding system provides charter schools “the same funding for each student with a disability, regardless of the severity of that student’s disability.”</p>
<p>“This creates a strong incentive to overidentify students with less costly disabilities and to under-identify (or under-enroll) students with more severe (or more costly) disabilities,” the report states. A speech impediment, for example, is an example of a <a href="https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/%7Eldg/ese424/class/understanding/types/chart.html#ld">mild disability</a>, versus a student with, say, a traumatic brain injury, which is a more severe disability. As the report explains, “A student with a mild disability can be a financial boon to a charter school, given that the funding the charter receives will exceed the charter’s cost to educate a child.”</p>
<p>Notably, Pennsylvania’s funding system does not create these incentives for district-run public schools.</p>
<p>These practices also can play a decisive role for comparisons of academic outcomes between charters and traditional public schools run by a school district. Overall, research <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/24/the-bottom-line-on-charter-school-studies/">consistently shows</a> little if any difference in the average test-score outcomes for the two types of schools. But the comparisons may not be fair and accurate. If charter schools can improve their test scores by screening out students they don’t think will do well, it can give them an unfair advantage in comparisons with public schools that accept all students.</p>
<h2>Policy incentives revisited</h2>
<p>So what can be done to make charter schools more accessible? One way is to change policy incentives such as the Pennsylvania funding system mentioned earlier. States can also change the way they reward schools for how well their students do on tests. Arizona, for instance, has policies that give extra <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2017/11/05/arizona-doug-ducey-performance-based-funding-boosts-higher-income-schools/782439001/">funding</a> to charters and other schools with higher achieving students.</p>
<p>In the final two chapters of our book, <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/school%E2%80%99s-choice-9780807765814">“School’s Choice,”</a> Mommandi and I point to a future with charter schools that don’t screen or push out students who are lower achieving or more expensive to educate. First, we hold up examples of charter schools that have resisted the incentives to limit access by, for example, working to support their communities’ most marginalized students. We then offer a design for a healthier charter school system that doesn’t put these exemplary schools at a disadvantage when it comes to accountability and funding systems.</p>
<p>Even in a post-pandemic world, charter school enrollment may continue to grow. But until the public has more access, charters will not be truly public.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Welner received funding from the Atlantic Philanthropies to support this research. </span></em></p>Charter school enrollment grew during the pandemic. But behind these schools’ rising popularity is a history of harsh discipline, inaccessibility and targeted marketing.Kevin Welner, Professor, Education Policy & Law; Director, National Education Policy Center, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1655812021-09-27T12:53:22Z2021-09-27T12:53:22ZHow civil rights activist Howard Fuller became a devout champion of school choice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417270/original/file-20210820-17-1cgcw33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5193%2C3466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Education reformer Howard Fuller has worked with GOP leaders in support of school vouchers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dr-howard-fuller-author-of-the-new-book-no-struggle-no-news-photo/455118800?adppopup=true">Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a longtime civil rights activist and education reformer, Howard Fuller has seen his support for school choice spark both <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/howard-fuller-a-civil-rights-warrior-or-billionares-tool/2014/09/09/3aedeff4-37c1-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html">controversy and confusion</a>. That’s because it aligns him with polarizing Republican figures that include <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/502961-trump-calls-school-choice-the-civil-rights-issue-of-the-decade">Donald Trump</a> and Trump’s former secretary of education, <a href="https://theconversation.com/through-her-divisive-rhetoric-education-secretary-devos-leaves-a-troubled-legacy-of-her-own-152914">Betsy DeVos</a>. </p>
<p>But unlike those figures, Fuller’s support for school choice is not rooted in a conservative agenda to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/05/20/school-privatization-movement-marches-on-during-pandemic/">privatize public schools</a>. Rather, it is grounded in his <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/we-are-an-african-people-9780199861477?cc=us&lang=en&">ongoing quest</a> to provide Black students a quality education by any means necessary. </p>
<p>I write about Fuller in my new book “<a href="http://www.beacon.org/The-Choice-We-Face-P1635.aspx">The Choice We Face</a>,” which traces the history of school choice as well as demands for radical education reform by Black activists. Unlike most other school choice advocates I interviewed, Fuller’s activism predates the current debate and has firm footing in the Black Power movement.</p>
<p>Now 80, Fuller <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2020/06/19/national-school-choice-advocate-howard-fuller-retire-marquette/3223241001/">retired in June 2020</a> from Marquette University, where he was a longtime education professor and founded the <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/education/centers-and-clinics/institute-for-the-transformation-of-learning.php">Institute for the Transformation of Learning</a> to improve education options for low-income students in Milwaukee. During the 1990s he served as superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools.</p>
<p>Here are five aspects from Fuller’s career that suggest a nuanced lens into the school choice movement. </p>
<h2>1. Advocated for Black Power in the 1960s</h2>
<p>Fuller first became involved in the civil rights movement when he joined the <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/Mss/MOM-Oral%20History/Fuller_Howard_oral_transcript%5B1%5D.pdf">Congress of Racial Equality</a> in 1964 as a graduate student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. </p>
<p>In Cleveland, Malcolm X delivered a version of the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-020-09484-5">Ballot or the Bullet</a>” speech <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/mupress/Fuller.shtml">in April 1964</a>. Days later, Rev. Bruce Klunder, a 27-year-old white Presbyterian minister, was accidentally <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/rev-bruce-klunder">crushed to death</a> by a bulldozer as he and several other activists protested the construction of a new, all-Black school. The school was the city’s attempt to avoid <a href="https://case.edu/ech/articles/k/klunder-bruce-w">desegregation</a>. </p>
<p>Fuller later helped establish and lead Malcolm X Liberation University in Raleigh, North Carolina. The independent Black-run school, which operated from 1969 to 1973, offered a unique African and African American studies curriculum as well as technical training for students to work as activists in the freedom struggle. </p>
<p>Controlling and safeguarding a school for one’s own community became a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/we-are-an-african-people-9780199861477?cc=us&lang=en&">defining principle</a> of the Black Power movement. For Fuller and others, education was liberation for Black communities. As <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/mupress/Fuller.shtml">Fuller described</a> it, the mission of the university was to educate students “totally committed to the liberation of all African people.” </p>
<h2>2. Proposed an all-Black school district in the 1980s</h2>
<p>In 1978, Fuller was embroiled in a struggle in Milwaukee to save his alma mater, North Division High School, <a href="https://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=etd">from closing</a>. That year, Derrick Bell, who is regarded as the “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-godfather-of-critical-race-theory-11624627522">godfather</a>” of <a href="https://theconversation.com/critical-race-theory-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt-162752">critical race theory</a>, delivered an address in Milwaukee titled “Desegregation: A New Form of Discrimination.”</p>
<p>In his speech, Bell criticized education reforms that were more concerned with balancing racial demographics in schools than with improving Black education. He argued that building programs that did not always accept local Black students but made space for white students who lived outside the neighborhood <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1340546">hurt Black students</a>. Much like Fuller’s North Division High School, Black students were not guaranteed admission to the school closest to their home if those schools were designed to attract white students. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black-and-white photo of a man wearing a suit walking with a group of students, each one carrying a book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3067%2C2023&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Civil rights leader Derrick Bell fought for equitable education for Black students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/harvard-law-school-professor-derrick-bell-walking-w-a-group-news-photo/50591767?adppopup=true">Steve Liss/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several years later, Howard Fuller drafted the “<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-09-29-8703130605-story.html">Manifesto for New Directions in the Education of Black Children</a>.” The treatise proposed carving out an all-Black school district within the Milwaukee public school district to serve over <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351313841-13/case-separate-black-school-system-derrick-bell">6,000 students</a>. The district was to be controlled by and geared toward families of color. The plan was a response to a call made in 1935 by W.E.B. DuBois, who argued that Black educators and activists should <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2291871">invest more in building Black schools</a> than integrating hostile white schools. </p>
<h2>3. Supports school vouchers today</h2>
<p>Fuller’s proposal for an all-Black school district <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/mupress/Fuller.shtml">gained traction</a>, but Wisconsin legislators opted instead for a voucher plan in 1989 – the <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lfb/informational_papers/january_2003/0029_milwaukee_parental_choice_program_informational_paper_29.pdf">Milwaukee Parental Choice Program</a>. The program covered the tuition of students who wanted to enroll in private schools. </p>
<p>The Republican Party seized on the new voucher plan and pushed it through the state legislature. Ever since the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">Brown v. Board of Education</a> decision in 1954, when the Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional, the Republican Party has increasingly aligned itself with school privatization efforts through <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2017/07/12/435629/racist-origins-private-school-vouchers/">vouchers</a> and “<a href="https://southernspaces.org/2019/segregationists-libertarians-and-modern-school-choice-movement/">freedom of choice</a>” plans. </p>
<p>Fuller also supported the Milwaukee voucher plan, as did some other Black activists, despite criticism from academics and organizations, <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/origins-milwaukee-parental-choice-program-no-struggle-no-progress-fuller/">including the NAACP</a>. </p>
<p>“If you’re drowning and a hand is extended to you, you don’t ask if the hand is attached to a Democrat or a Republican,” <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED531260">noted Wisconsin State Rep. Annette “Polly” Williams</a>, a Black Democrat who worked with Fuller to propose the legislation for a <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/for-maverick-polly-williams-the-mother-of-school-choice-the-point-was-always-to-empower-parents-and-improve-education-for-black-children/">separate school district</a> and also supported school vouchers.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<h2>4. Helped build the school choice movement</h2>
<p>Howard Fuller helped build the foundation for civil rights activists who are interested in school choice. As he told me during our interview in 2019, “I’ve always seen school choice from a social justice framework as opposed to a free market framework.”</p>
<p>Many activists saw it the same way.</p>
<p>For example, Wyatt Tee Walker, one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s trusted strategists, <a href="https://www.sisuluwalker.org/history">opened a charter school</a> in New York City in 1999. James Forman Jr., a civil rights lawyer, scholar, author and son of the prominent Black Panther Party organizer, opened a charter school in Washington, D.C. in 1997. Both leaders argued that failed desegregation attempts placed a <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/3146/">burden on Black families</a> by catering to white families without promising quality education for Black students. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, education activist Geoffrey Canada was <a href="https://www.wreg.com/news/2013-freedom-award-winners-named/">awarded the National Freedom Award</a> in 2013 for his charter school network, the <a href="https://hcz.org/our-purpose/our-history-zone-map/">Harlem Children’s Zone</a>. And in 2016, Martin Luther King III led one of the largest school choice rallies in the nation. “This is about freedom,” King told the crowd gathered in Florida, “the freedom to choose for your family and your child.” </p>
<p>Support for choice is not limited to a small cadre of activists. A <a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org/national-school-choice-poll-shows-67-of-voters-support-school-choice-2019/">2019 poll</a> by the American Federation for Children estimated that 73% of Latinos and 67% of African Americans support school choice. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother, father and two small children hold hands while walking down street" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Polling data shows a majority of African Americans support school choice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-myers-family-takes-a-walk-near-their-home-in-ne-news-photo/1208289093">Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Drew scorn for working with Republicans</h2>
<p>Fuller allied with prominent Republicans on school choice. He <a href="https://archive.jsonline.com/news/opinion/howard-fuller-still-a-warrior-for-children-b99338584z1-273253071.html/">met with George W. Bush</a> in 1999 while Bush was running for president. A year earlier, he debated then-Sen. Barack Obama on the issue of vouchers. His school reform work in New Orleans in the 2000s led him to collaborate with Betsy DeVos, who at that time was a <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/education/article_e8dbd575-e6e4-5b1e-b4c3-02596e539cbb.html">GOP financier and charter school advocate</a>. He also later <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYg7jn1KQo8">supported DeVos’ contested nomination</a> for secretary of education. </p>
<p>Fuller drew <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/howard-fuller-a-civil-rights-warrior-or-billionares-tool/2014/09/09/3aedeff4-37c1-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html">strong criticism</a> from the press and some education reformers for his connections with the GOP, who earned a tarnished reputation on <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/emerging-republican-majority/595504/">civil rights</a>, and for embracing what many defined as a conservative agenda.</p>
<p>In his own defense, he noted in our interview that while he agrees with some Republicans on school choice, he strongly disagrees with them “on voter ID, on drug testing for people getting public assistance. I support the minimum wage. I support Obamacare.”</p>
<p>Though his position on school choice did not curry favors with <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807863466/more-than-one-struggle/">progressive education reformers</a>, Fuller demonstrated that not all demands for school choice are the same. For instance, he believes <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/segregated-schools-are-still-the-norm-howard-fuller-is-fine-with-that/">“mom and pop” charter schools</a> are more emblematic of the long history of the Black freedom struggle than schools proposed by national charter school networks, as these grassroots schools are more often driven by the demands of historically marginalized communities. </p>
<p>“You’re going to be fighting for something for entirely different reasons than some of the people out there who are your allies,” Fuller said in our interview. I believe this difference is imperative to understanding the nuance of school choice today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon Hale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Howard Fuller’s support for school choice is connected to the Black Power movement and a pursuit to provide Black students a quality education by any means necessary.Jon Hale, Associate Professor of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1602252021-05-11T18:37:18Z2021-05-11T18:37:18ZI spent a year and a half at a ‘no-excuses’ charter school – this is what I saw<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398705/original/file-20210504-24-1abyuyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=42%2C0%2C5648%2C3797&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The strict discipline of 'no-excuses' charter schools can often make students feel stressed out. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/schoolgirl-in-class-royalty-free-image/88434344?adppopup=true">Image Source/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Charter schools have been on the scene for <a href="https://www.publiccharters.org/what-you-can-do/celebrate-national-charter-schools-week">more than 30 years old</a>, and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/22/opinion/charter-schools-democrats.html">contentious debate</a> about their merits and place in American society continues. </p>
<p>To better understand what happens at charter schools – and as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sERh9FQAAAAJ&hl=en">sociologist who focuses on education</a> – I spent a <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691168876/scripting-the-moves">year and a half</a> at a particular type of urban charter school that takes a “<a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/no-apologies-no-excuses-charter-schools">no-excuses</a>” approach toward education. My research was conducted from 2012 through 2013, but these practices are <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/no-apologies-no-excuses-charter-schools">still</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241619871091">prevalent</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904820917362">charter schools today</a>.</p>
<p>The no-excuses model is one of the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dporterfield/2014/07/30/20-years-of-kipp-lessons-for-success-in-public-education/">most celebrated</a> and <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/painful-backlash-excuses-school-discipline/">most controversial</a> education reform models for raising student achievement among Black and Latino students. Charters, which are public schools of choice that are independently managed, show <a href="https://futureofchildren.princeton.edu/sites/futureofchildren/files/resource-links/charter_schools_compiled.pdf">comparable achievement</a> to traditional public schools, but no-excuses charters produce much <a href="https://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2018/february/sarah-cohodes-study-urban-charters-may-hold-clues-for-closing-achievement-gap/">stronger test-score gains</a>. No-excuses schools have been <a href="https://broadfoundation.org/the-broad-prize-for-public-charter-schools/">heralded as examples</a> of charter success and have <a href="https://www.kipp.org/events-press/kipp-receives-15-million-grant-boost-number-educationally-underserved-students-succeeding-high-school-college-career/">received millions of dollars</a> in foundation support. At the same time, no-excuses schools themselves have started to rethink their harsh disciplinary practices. Large charter networks like KIPP and Noble in recent years have <a href="https://www.kipp.org/news/a-letter-from-dave-levin-to-kipp-alumni/">acknowledged the wrongfulness of their disciplinary approaches</a> and <a href="https://www.wbez.org/stories/top-chicago-charter-school-admits-a-racist-past/ebd3c82c-af3b-4320-befc-d7f565acc453">repudiated the no-excuses approach</a>. </p>
<p>Here are 10 of the most striking things that I observed at the no-excuses charter school where I spent 18 months.</p>
<h2>1. Teachers let nothing slide</h2>
<p>Teachers at no-excuses schools “<a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/sweating-small-stuff-inner-city-schools-and-new-paternalism">sweat the small stuff</a>.” The long list of infractions at the school that I observed included: not following directions, making unnecessary noise, putting one’s head down on a desk, being off-task, rolling one’s eyes and not tracking the speaker.</p>
<p>Students on average received one infraction every three days. One fifth grader managed to accumulate 295 infractions over the school year. Infractions resulted in detention, loss of privileges like field trips and school socials, and “bench” – a punishment in which students had to wear a special yellow shirt and could not talk to their classmates or participate in gym class.</p>
<h2>2. Teachers constantly explained the ‘why’</h2>
<p>Teachers were encouraged to explain the “why” of infractions so students would understand the rationale behind the school’s unbending rules. Why did students receive detention for arriving one minute late to school? Because supposedly it helped them develop time-management skills. College applications would not be accepted if they were one minute late, they claimed. Why were there silent hallways? Because, the school argued, self-control would get kids to and through college.</p>
<h2>3. Students developed distorted ideas about college</h2>
<p>Students formed an impression of college as very strict. Upon visiting a college, one student noticed couches in the dorm hallways. This made her think that colleges must allow students to talk “a little bit” because students weren’t just going to sit on couches and read a book. She questioned whether some of the rules at her own school might be “a little extra.” An alumna of the school also was surprised at the freedom afforded to her in college. Accustomed to a system of rewards and consequences, she struggled with turning in her essays for class because the teacher did not grade them. When the term ended and she had to turn in a portfolio of all her work, she found herself playing catch-up. She received a C in the class.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399257/original/file-20210506-17-p3nvpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A teacher wearing a mask walks up to a student in class working on an assignment." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399257/original/file-20210506-17-p3nvpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399257/original/file-20210506-17-p3nvpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399257/original/file-20210506-17-p3nvpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399257/original/file-20210506-17-p3nvpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399257/original/file-20210506-17-p3nvpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399257/original/file-20210506-17-p3nvpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399257/original/file-20210506-17-p3nvpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers are quick to criticize even the smallest behavioral issues among students at no-excuses charter schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teacher-wearing-face-mask-helping-student-royalty-free-image/1279872911?adppopup=true">FG Trade/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. School was stressful</h2>
<p>Because teachers constantly narrated expectations for behavior and scanned classrooms for compliance, students felt as if they were always under surveillance. Even the best-behaved students felt pressure. One mother told me that she kept her daughter home for two weeks because her daughter could not handle the pressure of being set up as a positive example for her classmates.</p>
<h2>5. The school intentionally recruited novice teachers</h2>
<p>No-excuses schools hire <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.11.006">young, energetic, mission-aligned teachers</a>. According to the human resources team, the school had two key criteria for recruiting teachers: coachability and mission fit. The school was less interested in hiring professionals with specialized skills and knowledge. Instead, the school sought teachers who they thought would be more open and responsive to the school’s direction and <a href="https://www.mathematica.org/our-publications-and-findings/publications/learning-from-charter-school-management-organizations-strategies-for-student-behavior-and-teacher-coaching">intensive coaching</a>. This meant that a teacher with 10 years of experience was not favored over one with almost no experience. </p>
<h2>6. Teacher turnover was high</h2>
<p>The rallying cry at the school I observed was “Making the School a Better Place to Work.” Half the teachers had left the school the previous year. Teacher turnover in no-excuses charter schools can range from <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0042085914549367">20% to 35% nationally</a>, about <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X17735812">twice the annual turnover rates</a> in traditional urban schools. </p>
<h2>7. Maximizing instructional time had its drawbacks</h2>
<p>Procedures as simple as <a href="https://blog.kipp.org/teachingstrategies/how-112ths-maximize-learning-joy/">handing back papers</a> or entering the classroom were streamlined to save minutes and seconds for instruction. This left little informal time for teachers to slow down and get to know the students. As one teacher put it, “It’s like you have to move quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly. There’s no time to waste and it’s like, you know, sometimes I feel like, oh wait a second, I need a breather, like we’re moving too fast. Like, slow down. Or [students] even need to feel like they’re being heard; they’re not being ignored.”</p>
<h2>8. School order was fragile</h2>
<p>School staff members were reluctant to ease up on school discipline because they observed how a small change in procedure altered the school culture. The principal saw visible declines in student behavior when the school implemented special events like “crazy sock day.” </p>
<p>When the school invited an adventure-based learning group to lead a few activities, students were found to have difficulty adjusting back after being in a less structured environment.</p>
<h2>9. One size does not fit all</h2>
<p>No-excuses schools target a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-of-a-charter-schools-success-parents-11567777805">select group of students and families</a> willing and able to comply with the school’s demanding expectations. In the initial summer visit made to the homes of all newly admitted students, school staff reviewed a five-page contract between families and the school detailing the school’s stringent expectations. They explicitly told families that the school “is not for everyone.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398725/original/file-20210504-16-rxhfhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young girl balances a pencil on her upper lip in class." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398725/original/file-20210504-16-rxhfhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398725/original/file-20210504-16-rxhfhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398725/original/file-20210504-16-rxhfhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398725/original/file-20210504-16-rxhfhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398725/original/file-20210504-16-rxhfhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398725/original/file-20210504-16-rxhfhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398725/original/file-20210504-16-rxhfhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Little acts of defiance were ways students rebelled against the strict authority of no-excuses charter schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/is-it-recess-yet-royalty-free-image/1205729130?adppopup=true">Marco VDM/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>10. Teachers and students creatively adapted</h2>
<p>The strict procedures and rigid routines did not stop teachers and students from finding ways to bend rules. Teachers found ways to adjust school practices to better fit their own styles. They used humor and took time to build relationships with students outside of school. Students also engaged in minor acts of resistance. They erased names off the infraction board. They wore multicolored socks when the school required solid-colored socks. If a teacher put forth the expectation of no talking, students tapped on their desks or hummed to show defiance. </p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>One of the original visions for charter schools was to create spaces for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/opinion/sunday/albert-shanker-the-original-charter-school-visionary.html">teachers to experiment with innovative practices</a> and for communities to create schools that <a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/p-4011-the-emancipatory-promise-of-cha.aspx">reflected local cultures and needs</a>. Instead, no-excuses charters employ a carefully maintained structure that limits the autonomy of both teachers and students. The costs of these structures are becoming apparent to the schools themselves. Change in these schools is happening but may not be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/08/29/some-no-excuses-charter-schools-say-they-are-changing-are-they-can-they/?arc404=true">quick or easy</a>. As no-excuses schools seek to modify their practices, they might do well to reflect on and revisit these founding charter principles.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne W. Golann has received funding from the Spencer Foundation, the National Academy of Education, and the American Sociological Association. </span></em></p>A select group of charter schools have adopted a “no-excuses” philosophy. A forthcoming book shines the light on the drawbacks of that approach.Joanne W. Golann, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1586762021-04-22T12:25:08Z2021-04-22T12:25:08ZBest schools often out of reach for disadvantaged students in choice programs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395760/original/file-20210419-21-17ddx3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4019%2C3024&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Just 1 in 10 choice students from Detroit attend high-performing schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-attending-summer-school-at-munger-elementary-news-photo/1227984092?adppopup=true">Kayla Ruble for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Although school choice policies are <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/helping-school-choice-work">often presented</a> as a way to let families select the best schools for their children, my research found that few students using school choice can <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373721996738">access high-achieving schools</a> far from home. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373721996738">peer-reviewed study</a> – recently published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis – I examine who uses school choice and whether most families enroll their kids in schools with high test scores and graduation rates in Detroit. Ninety percent of Detroit students are economically disadvantaged.</p>
<p>Thanks to state laws passed in the mid-1990s, Detroit students can attend <a href="http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-451-1976-1-6A">charter schools</a>, various Detroit public schools and <a href="http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-388-1705">schools in nearby districts</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373721996738">Over 30% attend Detroit charter schools</a> and <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/motor-city-miles-student-travel-schools-and-around-detroit">20% attend schools outside Detroit</a>. The schools that are located in the school districts surrounding Detroit – and that serve Detroit students – have higher average test scores and graduation rates than Detroit schools.</p>
<p>Using education data for Detroit students during the 2017-18 school year, I found that students from poorer neighborhoods and families without access to a car were less likely to choose schools far from home. Instead, most families chose schools within Detroit that had better student outcomes than other Detroit schools but lower test scores than many schools in the surrounding school districts. Even those who left Detroit were less likely to attend the highest-achieving schools outside the city. </p>
<p>So, the ability to attend the highest-quality schools serving Detroit students is limited by distance even when many different options are available. This is the case even after accounting for other preferences, such as school demographics and programs. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Detroit isn’t unique in its school choice options. Almost all states permit public school students to attend <a href="http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/MBQuestNB2C?rep=CS2001">charter schools</a> or schools <a href="http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/MBQuestNB2n?rep=OE1801">in other districts</a>. These policies allow students to attend schools other than their neighborhood school. </p>
<p>In theory, school choice could raise student achievement by increasing access to high-achieving schools and creating competition among schools for students, forcing schools to do more to improve achievement to attract families. However, there is <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w28477">little evidence</a> that school choice policies broadly result in widespread achievement gains. </p>
<p>My research shows that one reason choice may fail to live up to its promise is that many students are unable to physically access high-performing schools outside their neighborhood. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Little is known about how local differences in school choice rules affect student access. These differences can include enrollment regulations, whether or not transportation is provided or the relative ease or difficulty of the application process.</p>
<p>In surveys and interviews, families report that inadequate transportation is a barrier not only to <a href="https://www.crpe.org/sites/default/files/crpe_how-parents-experience-public-school-choice_1_1.pdf">attending preferred schools</a> but to <a href="https://education.wayne.edu/detroit_ed_research/derp_why_do_detroit_students_miss_school_final.pdf">attending school regularly</a>. A 2020 study shows families choose higher-quality schools <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2020.103607">when they have access to transportation</a>, and <a href="https://www.daniellesandersonedwards.com/workings-papers/another-one-rides-the-bus-the-impact-of-school-transportation-on-student-outcomes-in-michigan/">school buses</a> can increase regular school attendance by as much as 25% for low-income students.</p>
<p>However, fewer than half of states <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED605559">make transportation mandatory</a> for students using school choice.</p>
<p>Additionally, <a href="https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/narrowing-charter-enrollment-gap-8235.html">complex application procedures</a> likely impede enrollment in choice schools, especially for families from underrepresented backgrounds.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>For upcoming studies, my colleagues and I collected data from Michigan school districts concerning local between-district enrollment policies. This includes enrollment caps, transportation provisions and application deadlines. We plan to examine how local school choice rules could allow families to self-segregate on the basis of race or income. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.daniellesandersonedwards.com/workings-papers/all-decisions-are-local-how-district-rules-can-promote-or-restrict-school-choices/">Preliminary findings</a> show, for example, that early application deadlines may restrict access to high-achieving districts for low-income students and students of color.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle Sanderson Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Long distances often preclude families in the Motor City from sending their kids to the best schools in the area, new research shows.Danielle Sanderson Edwards, Ph.D. Candidate of Education Policy, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1499022021-02-01T19:45:31Z2021-02-01T19:45:31Z‘School choice’ policies are associated with increased separation of students by social class<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380309/original/file-20210123-19-qtl924.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=95%2C5%2C3898%2C2191&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Advocates of 'school choice' are often talking about wanting public funding for models like charter schools, but specialized programs should also be considered part of school choice debates. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-school-choice-is-a-better-way-than-the-public-school-pandemic-panic">Some commentators believe the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated</a> the need for parents to have more “school choice,” while others <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/stem-charter-school-in-calgary-approved-by-education-minister-1.5873575">say the pandemic shows the urgency of new schooling models</a> developed under <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/events/school-choice-in-a-time-of-transition/">school choice</a> policies.</p>
<p>But what is school choice? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-betsy-devos-and-school-choice-eight-essential-reads-62800">Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos and school choice: Eight essential reads</a>
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<p>The language of school choice supports the idea that education funding should follow students to the schools they believe best fit their learning needs. Education is then managed according to the free-market dynamics of consumer choice.</p>
<p>What this means is parents can choose among a variety of models that receive both state funds and financial support from personal and/or corporate sponsors. In the United States, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8TZIhpIV6c">and more recently</a> <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-alberta-public-charter-school-system/">in Canada</a>, when people talk about “<a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/david-staples-people-power-takes-another-step-forward-in-alberta-schools">school choice</a>” they’re often talking about how parents can or should be able to access funded or semi-funded school models like <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/30/18076968/charter-schools">charter schools</a>, <a href="https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/school-vouchers-what-you-need-to-know">school vouchers</a>, home schooling or private schools. </p>
<p>In England, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/03/choice-inequality-education-system-social-segregation">academy schools, enabled</a> under <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/21/contents">Tony Blair’s New Labour government</a>, and more traditional <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/education-34538222">grammar schools</a> are selective schools that enable school choice. Both are a <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2018/may/governments-grammar-school-funding-wont-improve-childrens-outcomes-say-experts">source of debate</a> in terms of how effective they are for student outcomes and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jun/30/coalition-education-reform-academies-fuelling-inequality">students’ social mobility</a>.</p>
<p>School choice alternatives position parents as consumers, and in many cases divert students and funding away from <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Comprehensive_school">comprehensive public schools</a>. This has been a noticeable trend in virtually all western industrialized democracies for more than 25 years. </p>
<h2>Reform agendas</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Brian Mulroney and Margaret Thatcher." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Prime Minister Brian Mulroney welcomes Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the Economic Summit at Toronto City Hall, June 1988.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
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<p>We should be concerned about advocacy for school choice models, because recent cross-national research shows <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811398629">increased school choice is associated with increased social stratification in terms of social class</a>. School choice and competition tend to be associated with <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/fairness_pb2019_educational_inequalities.pdf">larger gaps between high and low socio-economic status student groups and lower student achievement outcomes nationally</a>. </p>
<p>The rise of school choice advocacy has coincided with and followed neo-liberal school reforms in industrialized countries since the 1980s. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot">Margaret Thatcher’s British government</a> of the late 1980s is largely credited with the close <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789400740945">coupling of curriculum requirements with standardized testing</a> that popularized the adoption of market logic to the realm of public institutions and schools. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755">What exactly is neoliberalism?</a>
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<p>A key assumption is that choice and competition, like private sector companies, leads to a better product — in this case, better student outcomes and more effective schools and systems that are in the best interests of students. </p>
<p>School choice options such as charter schools are not as prominent in Canada as in other countries such as the U.S. and England: <a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Only Alberta now has charter schools</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/charter-schools-largely-ignored-in-canada">think tanks like the Fraser Institute</a> in Canada <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/six-reasons-to-support-school-choice-in-canada">continue to call for greater options for schooling outside of traditional publicly funded settings</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta</a>
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<h2>Beyond the neighbourhood</h2>
<p>When students can enrol in schools beyond their local neighbourhood, this is a sign that school choice is increasing. <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/students-in-choice-programs-out-of-catchment-schools-face-dilemma-if-homeschooled-this-fall-1.5066854">French immersion</a>, arts-based schools and other specialized schools must therefore be considered part of the school choice debate since some parents may be more adept at seeking out and securing spots in these programs. </p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/publications/balancing-school-choice-and-equity-2592c974-en.htm">vast majority of education systems in developed countries around the world</a>, students are assigned to schools within their catchment area based on their home address. However, examples abound of how middle- and upper-class families have been able to use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2014.968245">strategies such as choosing rare curricular options to avoid attending assigned schools</a> — thereby further contributing to social segregation between schools.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/how-are-school-choice-policies-related-to-social-diversity-in-schools_2d448c77-en">one analysis conducted by the OECD between 2000 and 2015</a>, the share of 15-year-old students who were admitted to school based on their home address shrank by 20 per cent or more in Denmark, Hong Kong (China), Iceland, Japan, Sweden and the U.S., and by six per cent on average across <a href="https://www.oecd.org/">28 OECD countries</a> with comparable data. In Canada, more than 60 per cent of students attend schools that use residence-based criteria. These findings reflect a global and national trend of the availability of greater school-choice options for families.</p>
<h2>Impact of school choice</h2>
<p>It is difficult to make general statements about the impact of school choice and increased school competition that is applicable to all provinces or countries. Nevertheless, research does suggest some general patterns — many of which have remained fairly stable over time.</p>
<p>One analysis of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus/pisa-in-focus-n42-(eng)-final.pdf">65 countries</a> suggested that education systems where parents chose schools, and schools competed for enrolment, are often more socially segregated — often in relation to socio-economic differences. </p>
<p>The process of segregation is driven not only by parental preferences, but also by institutional factors. For example, schooling that promotes market-like dynamics are more likely to accentuate the separation of students based on socio-economic background. </p>
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<img alt="Student on a city bus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An OECD analysis correlated a rising number of students attending school outside their neighbourhoods with rising school choice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Some of the factors that may aggravate socio-economic segregation in school-choice settings are the participation of for-profit providers, the use of school fees or tuition add-ons and allowing student selection. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fun-fair-and-all-school-fundraising-may-carry-hidden-costs-to-society-118883">The fun fair, and all school fundraising, may carry hidden costs to society</a>
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<p>These institutional features may be an important reason why socio-economic segregation has not <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-019-09437-3">significantly decreased in recent decades</a>.</p>
<p>Not only has for-profit participation been shown to be related to greater segregation, but it raises concerns about equity and the use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-big-winners-from-swedens-for-profit-free-schools-are-companies-not-pupils-29929">public funding</a>. Reports of discriminatory practices towards <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2020.1744239">socio-economically disadvantaged students and those deemed “low achievers” are frequently reported in market-driven educational systems that allow academic selection</a>. </p>
<h2>System effectiveness and selectivity</h2>
<p>Countries (or in Canada, provinces) that demonstrate high student achievement outcomes and smaller achievement gaps between groups of students (high- versus low-socio-economic status, boys versus girls, non-immigrants versus immigrants) are generally lauded internationally. Other regions seek to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-PISA-Effect-on-Global-Educational-Governance/Volante/p/book/9780367884529">emulate their success and they become known as “reference societies</a>.”</p>
<p>Over the past two decades, countries such as <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-PISA-Effect-on-Global-Educational-Governance/Volante/p/book/9781138217416">Finland and Singapore, and education authorities in Canada (particularly Alberta), to name a few, have traditionally been viewed as effective systems</a> for simultaneously possessing high achievement and equity when judged against their international counterparts.</p>
<p>These countries differ substantially based on a variety of key dimensions such as cultural context, size of their student population and homogeneity, teacher training and compensation, to name but a few. Schools in these places are also less likely to select students, which reduces the prospect of social stratification. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen in Alberta how recent <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7000587/alberta-government-ucp-charter-schools-home-schooling-education-may/">charter school legislation</a> will affect equitable learning opportunities and outcomes. </p>
<h2>Education and evidence-based policy</h2>
<p>Although collaboration and co-operation are often at odds with private sector companies competing for market share, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13632430701379354">research suggests</a> these attributes are critically important for raising the prospects of all students within education systems. </p>
<p>Ultimately, policymakers need to continually interrogate research findings, free from political interference. They need to carefully consider both the positive and negative effects of a shift away from comprehensive public education systems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Volante receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Wyse has research funding from the Helen Hamlyn Trust, The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), and The Nuffield Foundation. He is the President of the British Education Research Association (BERA).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Gutiérrez receives funding from CONICYT PIA CJE grant number CIE160007 and the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/T008911/1). </span></em></p>Letting parents choose which school their child attends positions parents as consumers, and often diverts students and funding away from public schools.Louis Volante, Professor of Education, Brock UniversityDominic Wyse, Professor of Education, UCLGabriel Gutiérrez, Postdoctoral research fellow, London School of Economics and Political ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1529142021-01-12T13:25:26Z2021-01-12T13:25:26ZThrough her divisive rhetoric, Education Secretary DeVos leaves a troubled legacy of her own<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378102/original/file-20210111-17-yu4nsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5507%2C3702&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos speaks during the daily briefing on COVID-19 on March 27, 2020, in Washington, D.C. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/secretary-of-education-betsy-devos-speaks-during-the-daily-news-photo/1208441564?adppopup=true"> JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos resigned from her post effective Jan. 8, 2021, saying there was “<a href="https://static.politico.com/8b/7a/29084d4f45b89aa9e49f4ba01690/devos-letter.pdf">no mistaking</a>” the impact that President Donald Trump’s rhetoric had on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Here, five scholars offer their views on DeVos’ legacy at the federal agency she headed for four years</em>.</p>
<h2>Mark Hlavacik, associate professor of communication studies, University of North Texas:</h2>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/betsy-devos-resignation-letter/cfd93504-2353-4ac3-8e71-155446242dda/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_7">resignation letter</a>, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos explained that her sudden departure from the administration was motivated by President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-save-america-rally-transcript-january-6">incendiary words</a> to the crowd that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2021/politics/trump-insurrection-capitol/">went on to ransack</a> the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. </p>
<p>“There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation,” she declared, “and it is the inflection point for me.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, DeVos has a history of using some rather caustic and divisive language herself. Although she never encouraged or condoned the use of force to achieve political ends, her insulting characterizations of public educators as “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/10/10/the-new-insult-betsy-devos-is-hurling-at-her-critics-and-why-it-matters/">sycophant[s] of the ‘system’</a>” and “<a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/prepared-remarks-us-education-secretary-betsy-devos-american-enterprise-institute">Chicken Littles</a>” will leave a troubled legacy of their own.</p>
<p>Much like democracy, public education is an enterprise that relies on a basic civic faith that Americans can come together as a nation and in their communities to do worthwhile things that benefit all. Traditionally, the secretary of education plays a key role as a rhetorical leader who brings the country together to face its educational challenges. But that has rarely been the case with DeVos. </p>
<p>As recently as October she <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/prepared-remarks-secretary-devos-hillsdale-college">used her position to warn</a> that an “unholy mob” of young socialists who “hate freedom” are using a “Marxist playbook” to attack “the family.”
Rhetoric like that in her <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/prepared-remarks-secretary-devos-hillsdale-college">speech to Hillsdale College</a> reflects an affinity for blaming that DeVos <a href="https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781623499068/demagogue-for-president/">shares with her former boss</a>.</p>
<p>As I have <a href="https://www.hepg.org/hep-home/books/assigning-blame">warned elsewhere</a>, such <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches">routine blaming</a> leaves the impression that any <a href="https://www.hepg.org/blog/the-paradox-of-public-blame-and-the-prospects-of-p">meaningful conversation</a> on an important issue like education will devolve into a war of accusations. </p>
<p>And that can leave not just the nation’s Capitol but also public education defenseless before a tide of extremism.</p>
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<img alt="U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos testifies during a meeting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377817/original/file-20210108-21-17etg8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377817/original/file-20210108-21-17etg8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377817/original/file-20210108-21-17etg8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377817/original/file-20210108-21-17etg8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377817/original/file-20210108-21-17etg8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377817/original/file-20210108-21-17etg8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377817/original/file-20210108-21-17etg8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos testifies before a Senate subcommittee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/secretary-of-education-betsy-devos-testifies-during-a-news-photo/1133269507?adppopup=true">Zach Gibson/Getty Images)</a></span>
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<h2>Stanley Litow, visting professor of the practice in public policy, Duke University:</h2>
<p>Although college readiness, access and affordability are more important now than ever – particularly for people of color and those who are low-income – Betsy DeVos sadly did little to address these issues.</p>
<p>Expanding <a href="https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/pell">Pell Grants</a> – the major source of federal aid in defraying tuition costs for low-income students – should have been the focus of the Department of Education to ensure more people can afford college. The same is true of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-debt-crisis-college-cost-mind-blowing-facts-2019-700">growing crisis of college debt</a>, which now stands at a record <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SLOAS">US$1.7 trillion and counting</a>.</p>
<p>While it was up to Congress to reauthorize the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/higher-education-act-of-1965-hea.asp">Higher Education Act</a> – a federal law that regulates federal student aid, among other things, and effectively funds higher education – passage wasn’t a priority for the leadership in the department, and it didn’t happen. This was particularly troubling in light of the fact that <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/05/public-higher-education-worse-spot-ever-heading-recession">state funding for higher education has declined by 18%</a> in the last two decades. </p>
<p>Also, instead of a focus on the divisive issues of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2019/03/27/charter-school-betsy-devos-school-choice/3251111002/">charter schools</a>, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2020-10-20/betsy-devos-says-school-choice-is-coming-like-it-or-not">choice schools</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-18/betsy-devos-s-billion-dollar-voucher-boondoggle">vouchers</a>, the nation’s schools needed a laser-like focus on teaching. This is especially true when it comes to recruiting and retaining good teachers. But here, too, the Department of Education under DeVos’ leadership played little to no role. In fact, DeVos <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/05/public-higher-education-worse-spot-ever-heading-recession">pushed back on efforts to provide teachers with needed professional development</a>. </p>
<p>The Department of Education also fell short in terms of how it dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of the escalating rate of hospitalizations and deaths, no issue was as important to America’s future – in my opinion – as its long-term impact on education. After months of school being largely online, K-12 students were projected to start the 2020-21 school year with <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20965918">significant losses in reading and math</a>. I believe the Department of Education’s support for remote learning was minimal at best, based on conversations I’ve had with school superintendents throughout the nation.</p>
<p>It was a total disaster for poor children. More than <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2020/06/22/unequally-disconnected-access-to-online-learning-in-the-us/">1 in 4 children experience food insecurity</a>, and children in those homes similarly lack online access.</p>
<h2>Kevin Welner, professor of education, University of Colorado Boulder</h2>
<p>When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, there was little doubt that he would appoint a secretary of education who would support private school vouchers, oppose teacher unions and be reluctant to enforce civil rights statutes. That agenda is consistent with every Republican administration going back to Ronald Reagan. Why, then, did Betsy DeVos become “<a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jan/06/frederica-wilson/how-unpopular-betsy-devos">the most unpopular person in our government</a>”?</p>
<p>What set her tenure apart was not what she did – it’s that she personified those policies. </p>
<p>Unlike her predecessors, DeVos had no relevant experience in public education. She was never a governor or state legislator like <a href="https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/A000360">Lamar Alexander</a>, or a legal scholar of education like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/us/shirley-hufstedler-pioneering-judge-and-first-cabinet-level-education-secretary-is-dead-at-90.html">Shirley Hufstedler</a>, a K-12 teacher and school administrator like <a href="https://www.ecs.org/award/1985-terrel-h-bell/">Terrel H. Bell</a> or a university professor like <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-miscellaneous-biographies/william-j-bennett">William Bennett</a>.</p>
<p>Also unlike her predecessors, she <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/education-nominee-betsy-devos-never-attended-a-public-school-theres-nothing-wrong-with-that/2017/01/29/5f63b2f6-e37c-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html">never attended public school herself</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/us/politics/betsy-devos-private-schools-choice.html">nor did she send her children to public schools</a>.</p>
<p>Instead, she made her mark as a <a href="https://mcfn.org/node/6043/devos-family-made-14-million-in-political-contributions-in-the-last-2-years-alone">political donor</a> and <a href="https://www.dbdvfoundation.org/news/dick-and-betsy-devos-lift-the-veil-on-their-139m-in-philanthropy">philanthropist</a>. Her advocacy for private school vouchers culminated in her founding of the <a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org">American Federation for Children</a> in 2010. </p>
<p>Upon taking office, she embarked on a “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/a-quarter-of-the-k-12-schools-betsy-devos-has-visited-are-private/2017/10/27/02d5f7a2-a946-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html">Rethink Schools</a>” tour. Almost 40% of the schools she visited were private. “Even when DeVos has visited public schools, she has tended to bypass traditional neighborhood schools, instead making stops at charter schools and other schools of choice,” The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/a-quarter-of-the-k-12-schools-betsy-devos-has-visited-are-private/2017/10/27/02d5f7a2-a946-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html">noted in 2017</a>.</p>
<p>In short, DeVos stood out because she embraced the role of privatization advocate – a role she never relinquished. She made no pretense about this advocacy. For her, all that’s required for schooling to be considered “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/02/28/betsy-devos-her-allies-are-trying-redefine-public-education-critics-call-it-absurd/">public education</a>” is public funding and use by the public, meaning that private schools can provide “public” education. DeVos, from the moment of her appointment, became a powerful symbol. That, more than any action she took while in office, set her apart.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters rally against U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377820/original/file-20210108-19-607b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377820/original/file-20210108-19-607b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377820/original/file-20210108-19-607b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377820/original/file-20210108-19-607b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377820/original/file-20210108-19-607b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377820/original/file-20210108-19-607b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377820/original/file-20210108-19-607b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Protesters rally against U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos outside of a banquet hall in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protestors-rally-against-u-s-secretary-of-education-betsy-news-photo/1140636202?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Dustin Hornbeck, postdoctoral research fellow of educational leadership and policy, University of Texas at Arlington</h2>
<p>Betsy DeVos made it clear in her confirmation hearings that she believed that public schools were not “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/betsy-devos-trump-s-pick-education-secretary-won-t-rule-n708171">working for the students that are assigned to them</a>,” while she refused to answer direct questions about whether she intended to work to privatize public schools.</p>
<p>In her four-year tenure as secretary of education, it could be said that her biggest achievement was making the role of the U.S. Department of Education less prominent, and, similar to Donald Trump, <a href="https://theconversation.com/betsy-devos-6-month-report-card-more-undoing-than-doing-81793">undoing that which was done during Barack Obama’s tenure</a>. DeVos made no bones about her dedication to school choice programs, <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget18/index.html">attempting to include $400 million in the 2018 budget</a>, which Congress rejected. She later argued that some of the funding in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act – better known as the <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares">CARES Act</a> – intended for public schools should be <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-issues-rule-ensure-cares-act-funding-serves-all-students">designated for private schools</a>. </p>
<p>Controversially, DeVos rolled back <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-takes-historic-action-strengthen-title-ix-protections-all-students">Obama-era Title IX guidance</a> that gave victims of sexual assault additional recourse on college campuses. She also instituted a <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-the-new-title-ix-regulations-will-affect-sexual-assault-cases-on-campus-138091">more complicated burden of proof</a>. Additionally, she rescinded guidance <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/lgbt-youth/betsy-devos-denies-trans-students-basic-rights">to protect transgender students’</a> ability to use toilet facilities and locker rooms that correlate with their gender identity. In another incident, she rescinded education department guidance about student discipline tactics intended to curb school suspensions and overly harsh punishments that <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/betsy-devos-revokes-obama-discipline-guidance-designed-to-protect-students-of-color/2018/12">disparately impact students of color</a>.</p>
<p>Her administration <a href="https://panetta.house.gov/congressman-panetta-over-150-democrats-call-devos-release-more-information-about-department-s">dramatically slowed the approval of Public Service Loan Forgiveness</a>, which forgives federally subsidized student loans after a period of 10 years for public servants: that is, people who work for governmental agencies or for nonprofit organizations. As well, she <a href="https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/sweet-proposed-settlement-notification-sample.pdf">curtailed borrower defense practices</a> meant to protect consumers from predatory lending from for-profit colleges that might close before students earn a degree. She also <a href="https://www.smith.senate.gov/us-senator-tina-smith-leads-senate-colleagues-calling-secretary-devos-further-improve-program">scaled back the TEACH Grant program</a>, which gave future teachers federal money for college if they agreed to teach for a length of time in a high-need area.</p>
<p>While many of these actions have noticeably impacted educational policy, almost all of them can be overturned quickly in a new administration through direct administrative action. Few, if any, of DeVos’ school choice plans were codified and passed into law, making her legacy one of controversy and little action.</p>
<h2>Nicholas Tampio, professor of political science at Fordham University</h2>
<p>One of the great questions at the start of Betsy Devos’ tenure was whether she would enforce the federal education law signed by President Barack Obama at the end of his second term. Four years later, we know the answer: She did not try to undermine the federal testing regime instituted by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/devos-vows-to-require-standardized-tests-again-4-questions-answered-145979">Every Student Succeeds Act</a> of 2015.</p>
<p>At her contentious confirmation hearing in January 2017, Sen. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, asked DeVos if she thought Congress took the right approach in preserving federal guardrails in education. One of these was the requirement that states test students annually in grades 3-8 and once in high school in reading and math. <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115shrg23667/pdf/CHRG-115shrg23667.pdf">DeVos replied</a>: “I believe that Congress made great strides in returning the responsibility for education primarily to states and localities, where it belongs.”</p>
<p>Former Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, for one, was not sure whether DeVos really supported or understood the testing requirements of the law. After listening to her apparently struggle to explain the difference between testing for proficiency or growth, <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115shrg23667/pdf/CHRG-115shrg23667.pdf">Franken replied</a>: “It surprises me that you don’t know this issue.” Every Democratic senator, and two Republicans, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/07/us/politics/betsy-devos-confirmation-vote.html">voted against her nomination</a>. DeVos became secretary only because Vice President Mike Pence cast the deciding vote. Before the vote, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/us/politics/betsy-devos-education-secretary-confirmed.html?searchResultPosition=1">Franken said</a>: “It was the most embarrassing confirmation hearing that I have ever seen.”</p>
<p>Senate Democrats, it turns out, did not need to worry about DeVos’ commitment to federal testing requirements.</p>
<p>In the spring of 2019, the U.S. Department of Education warned Arizona that it could lose <a href="https://www.edweek.org/education/devos-team-arizona-could-lose-340-million-for-skirting-essas-testing-requirements/2019/04">$340 million</a> in federal education funds. Why? Because their state education plan did not use a single test for all high school students in the state. Arizona wanted to offer school districts a “menu of assessments,” but the <a href="https://azsbe.az.gov/sites/default/files/media/AZ%20high%20school%20assessments%20waiver-%20final%20letter%2019-000167.pdf">Trump team rejected that plan</a>.</p>
<p>Miguel Cardona, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for secretary of education, has <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/where-bidens-choice-for-education-secretary-stands-on-key-k-12-issues/2020/12">reaffirmed</a> his commitment to federally mandated standardized testing as a tool of equity. Ultimately, DeVos’ reign at the Department of Education will not have changed the testing regime between the Obama and Biden administrations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has resigned. Five experts comment on the impact she had on education.Mark Hlavacik, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, University of North TexasDustin Hornbeck, Postdoctoral Research Fellow of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Texas at ArlingtonKevin Welner, Professor, Education Policy & Law; Director, National Education Policy Center, University of Colorado BoulderNicholas Tampio, Professor of Political Science, Fordham UniversityStanley S. Litow, Visting Professor of the Pratice, Public Policy, Duke UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1495832020-11-13T13:43:33Z2020-11-13T13:43:33ZOnce a symbol of desegregation, Ruby Bridges’ school now reflects another battle engulfing public education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368354/original/file-20201109-23-1rgbeqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">US deputy marshals escort 6-year-old Ruby Bridges outside William Frantz Public School in New Orleans in 1960.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RubyBridgesSegregation/83ac2adbc8e147a2b80b20992ef70a97/photo?Query=Ruby%20AND%20Bridges&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=55&currentItemNo=28">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Nov. 14, 1960, after a long summer and autumn of volleys between the Louisiana Legislature and the federal courts, Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old Black girl, was allowed to enroll in an all-white school. Accompanied by federal marshals, Bridges entered William Frantz Public School – a small neighborhood school in New Orleans’ Upper Ninth Ward.</p>
<p>If that building’s walls could talk, they certainly would tell the well-known story of its desegregation. But those same walls could tell another story, too. That story is about continued racism as well as efforts to dismantle and privatize public education in America over the past six decades.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_allsubj=all&as_sauthors=%22Schaffer%2C+Connie+L%22&as_q=">scholars</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OWsZ31oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">of</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_allsubj=all&as_sauthors=%22White%2C+Meg%22&as_q=">education</a>, we combed through multiple archives to <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/67650?format=EPDF">uncover this story</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An older woman stands in front of a painting of a young Black girl walking to school" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368900/original/file-20201111-15-1spz9jk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368900/original/file-20201111-15-1spz9jk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368900/original/file-20201111-15-1spz9jk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368900/original/file-20201111-15-1spz9jk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368900/original/file-20201111-15-1spz9jk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368900/original/file-20201111-15-1spz9jk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368900/original/file-20201111-15-1spz9jk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lynda Gunn, who modeled as Ruby Bridges for Norman Rockwell’s 1964 painting ‘The Problem We All Live With,’ poses in front of the painting in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lynda-gunn-poses-next-to-the-1964-rockwell-painting-the-news-photo/578335742?adppopup=true">Timothy Tai/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A civil rights landmark</h2>
<p>News outlets covering the Ruby Bridges story published numerous photographs at the time. But the Frantz school, and racist reactions to desegregating it, really captured America’s attention in 1964, after Look magazine ran a photo of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Trz-ijBYg">Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting of Bridges</a> walking to the school.</p>
<p>Disney’s movie “<a href="https://www.euzhanpalcy.net/rubybridges">Ruby Bridges</a>” and an <a href="http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/content/through-my-eyes">award-winning children’s book</a> solidified the school’s iconic role in the civil rights movement. In 2005, just months before Hurricane Katrina caused serious structural damage to the school, Frantz was added to the <a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/73974310">National Register of Historic Places</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CHTJMbWBx6r/">A viral illustration</a> of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris walking alongside a silhouette of Bridges as depicted in Rockwell’s painting has captured that attention again.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CHUdleKjItx","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Resistance of white residents</h2>
<p>For the remainder of Bridges’ first school year, crowds protested outside the school building. They threatened Bridges, her family and the families of the few white children who continued to attend. Most parents withdrew their children from Frantz and enrolled them in all-white, private schools instead. </p>
<p>Racism drove many white families from the neighborhoods near the school and other areas of New Orleans to abandon the city. White enrollment steadily declined throughout New Orleans’ public schools, dropping more than 50% between 1960 and 1980.</p>
<p>By 2005, only <a href="https://www.louisianabelieves.com/docs/default-source/katrina/final-louisana-believes-v5-enrollment-demographics22f9e85b8c9b66d6b292ff0000215f92.pdf?sfvrsn=2">3% of the students enrolled</a> in the city’s public schools were white – <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ruraled/tables/B.1.b.-1.asp?refer=urban">far below average</a> for midsize American cities.</p>
<p>In the 1970s, the neighborhoods surrounding Frantz <a href="https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/449/">experienced pronounced poverty</a>. A growing number of students throughout New Orleans – <a href="https://teachneworleans.net/nola-by-the-numbers/">most of whom were Black</a> – attended schools that <a href="http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_197911_geisert.pdf">were underfunded</a>.</p>
<p>Still, Frantz teachers and students persevered.</p>
<p>The school offered Black history events, special science programs, anti-drug campaigns, and classes in African dance and social skills. At one point, <a href="https://www.guideposts.org/inspiration/inspiring-stories/stories-of-hope/in-1960-little-ruby-bridges-bravely-entered-an-all-white-school">Bridges volunteered</a> at Frantz as a liaison between the school and families. </p>
<h2>National reform and charter trend</h2>
<p>However, the resilience of the students and the teachers at Frantz proved no match for powerful forces promoting a disruptive approach to public school accountability.</p>
<p>In the late 1980s, school choice advocates like <a href="https://www.aft.org/ae/winter2014-2015/kahlenberg_potter">Albert Shanker</a> promoted charter schools as a means to reform public education in America and to replace academically struggling schools like Frantz. Some school reformers believed these publicly funded yet independently run schools could offer more instructional innovations than centralized school districts. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, <a href="https://www.louisianabelieves.com/docs/default-source/district-support/comprehensive-assessment-system-overview-2017-2018.pdf?sfvrsn=8">Louisiana developed LEAP</a>, an accountability system based on mandatory high-stakes testing. Like similar programs that were popping up in school districts across the country, it didn’t account for the impact of poverty on test scores while generating <a href="https://www.louisianabelieves.com/data/reportcards/">report cards</a> for Louisiana schools.</p>
<p>Frantz’s report cards categorized the school as “unacceptable” or “below average.” In June 2005, the school district voted to <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1320/Thevenot_-_Five_Elementary_Schools_to_Close.pdf?1605058134">close Frantz</a>.</p>
<h2>Guise of recovery</h2>
<p>A year before the school closed, Louisiana passed legislation authorizing the takeover of schools the LEAP system labeled as failing. As local officials shuttered Frantz, state officials stripped the New Orleans school board of its authority and transferred responsibility of five schools to the newly formed <a href="https://www.louisianabelieves.com/schools/recovery-school-district/">Recovery School District</a>. The state Department of Education, which oversaw the schools, promptly converted them to charters.</p>
<p>When Americans turned their attention to New Orleans following <a href="https://theconversation.com/hurricane-kids-what-katrina-taught-us-about-saving-puerto-ricos-youngest-storm-victims-101509">Hurricane Katrina</a>, many wrongly assumed the Recovery School District was part of the massive, multifaceted federal response to the hurricane.</p>
<p>In reality, Katrina provided a convenient opportunity for charter school advocates. They capitalized on the post-Katrina recovery to rewrite the story of public education in New Orleans by establishing a system completely dominated by for-profit and not-for-profit charter schools. </p>
<p>School reformers touted the system as a model to improve struggling education systems. In fact, after Hurricane Maria destroyed much of Puerto Rico, the island’s <a href="https://twitter.com/JuliaBKeleher/status/923724280885661696">secretary of education</a> declared it an “opportunity to create new, better schools,” and called New Orleans a “point of reference.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the building that had housed Frantz sat abandoned and in need of <a href="https://savingplaces.org/stories/desegregation-landmark-new-orleans-education-healing#.X6SjE2hKjcs">massive repairs</a>. Following renovation, it reopened in 2013 as a charter school, <a href="https://akiliacademy.org/">Akili Academy</a>.</p>
<h2>An all-charter district</h2>
<p>The historic building now tells a <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/education/article_30fbef6e-b476-11e9-a3b5-57480c7a30f7.html">contemporary story of an all-charter district</a>.</p>
<p>In the past, New Orleans voters held the school board accountable for its oversight of the former Frantz school and other neighborhood public schools like it. Unlike Frantz, Akili is a charter school that students throughout the city are eligible to attend. It is under the direction of the private board of <a href="https://crescentcityschools.org/">Crescent City Schools</a>, a charter management organization.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368212/original/file-20201109-15-1us9kje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sign saying Akili Academy on a beige brick building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368212/original/file-20201109-15-1us9kje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368212/original/file-20201109-15-1us9kje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368212/original/file-20201109-15-1us9kje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368212/original/file-20201109-15-1us9kje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368212/original/file-20201109-15-1us9kje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368212/original/file-20201109-15-1us9kje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368212/original/file-20201109-15-1us9kje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Akili Academy occupies the former William Frantz Public School building.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mandy Liu</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Government funding provides <a href="https://crescentcityschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/CCS-annual-report-2019-rev-sp-lg.pdf">90% of Akili’s current revenue</a>. The Crescent City board and others like it spend those tax dollars and determine how to educate the city’s children. Privately appointed charter board members face no accountability to voters.</p>
<p>Such a system can mute voices of local voters, most of whom – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1922">in this part of New Orleans</a> – are Black.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Today, a large Akili Academy banner hangs outside the new main entrance, beneath smaller lettering that reads: William Frantz School. Only an inscription by a rarely used side entrance bears the school’s full historic name: William Frantz Public School. A statue of Bridges, erected in 2014, stands in a far corner of the school’s back courtyard.</p>
<p>We see the fate of Ruby Bridges’ historic school as a stark indicator that the public education system she fought to integrate as a little girl may be a relic of the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is the public education that Ruby Bridges fought to integrate a relic of the past?Connie L. Schaffer, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, University of Nebraska OmahaMartha Graham Viator, Associate Professor Emeritus of Education, Rowan UniversityMeg White, Associate Professor of Education, Stockton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1476202020-10-27T14:09:02Z2020-10-27T14:09:02ZHow teachers’ union activism helped shift the U.S. election debate on education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365111/original/file-20201022-23-155av65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C104%2C5334%2C3011&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teacher activism in the U.S. has helped pushed the Democratic party towards renewed investment in public education. Children listen as former president Barack Obama campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Oct. 21, 2020, in Philadelphia. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/ Matt Slocum)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the fight for the U.S. presidency, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has positioned protecting students, educators and getting schools open safely with smaller classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic as “<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?475377-1/joe-biden-remarks-reopening-schools-covid-19">a national emergency</a>.” On Sept. 2, he praised educators for their “grit,” and recognized their concerns for students.</p>
<p>Biden’s praise reflects his kindergarten to Grade 12 education plan, which calls on the federal government to “<a href="https://joebiden.com/education/">provide educators the support and respect they need and deserve” to and “start investing in our children at birth</a>.” </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xG4q4mrFaME?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden’s education plan.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In both tone and content, Biden’s plan <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-08-18/trump-biden-education-policy-election">represents an evolution in the focus of American education policy</a> and a departure from recent commitments of Democratic and Republican parties emphasizing school accountability through testing and expanding publicly funded, privately operated charter schools. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta</a>
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<p>In Canada, the challenges of reopening schools during COVID-19 have prompted suggestions that it’s time to think <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-school-choice-is-a-better-way-than-the-public-school-pandemic-panic">about “school choice”</a> through charter schools or <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/agar-its-time-to-talk-about-school-choice-in-canada">through school voucher</a> programs. Voucher programs provide parents with government grants, normally taken out of the general public school budget, that they can use for tuition at a private school. </p>
<p><a href="https://behindthenumbers.ca/2014/06/04/public-education-reform-lessons-from-the-united-states-on-what-not-to-do/">As I have argued</a>, Canadians should not ignore American experiences of expanding such kinds of schooling. </p>
<h2>Heavier federal role</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos speaks at the Phoenix International Academy, a charter school, in Phoenix, Oct. 15, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Matt York)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the U.S., states are primarily responsible for education policy. But the federal secretary of education establishes <a href="https://www.ed.gov/">policies on federal financial aid for education and distributes and monitors related funds, as well as collecting data, disseminating research</a> and ensuring <a href="https://www.waldenu.edu/online-doctoral-programs/doctor-of-education/resource/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-role-of-us-secretary-of-education#:%7E:text=The%20Secretary%20of%20Education%20Is,Department%20of%20Education%20in%201980">schools from pre-kindergarten to post-graduate institutions “comply with federal … laws governing funding and discrimination</a>.” The federal government began to play a role in kindergarten to Grade 12 education with the passage of the <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/education/elementary-and-secondary-education-act-of-1965/">Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965</a>. </p>
<p>The act provided federal funding to states to support school districts with concentrations of poor students. The ESEA has to be reauthorized every five years, and subsequent presidents have expanded its scope through changes: for instance, to provide resources for educating students with disabilities or to address perceived challenges like gaps in student achievement.</p>
<p>In the late 1980s, concerns over student achievement led to the <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/diane-ravitch/the-death-and-life-of-the-great-american-school-system/9780465097999/">emergence of an education reform movement</a>. This movement emphasized standardized testing to hold schools accountable when students didn’t make adequate academic progress and the expansion of school choice through publicly funded, privately operated charter schools. </p>
<h2>Fractures in U.S. ‘education reform’</h2>
<p>Support for education reform was bipartisan in the U.S. Beginning in 1988, presidents used reauthorizations of the ESEA to emphasize greater accountability. Presidents <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html">George W. Bush</a> and <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">Barack Obama</a> went farthest to <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/the-nations-main-k-12-law-a-timeline.html">mandate testing and support charter schools</a>. </p>
<p>Since the late ‘80s, presidents have been careful not to explicitly attack the teaching profession. But some state and local politicians (particularly Republicans) were quick to place the blame for so-called failing schools on <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/christie-teachers-union-deserves-punch-in-the-face-120913">teachers’ unions</a>. Some media then followed suit, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/10/03/three-time-covers-show-how-american-attitudes-about-teachers-have-changed">focusing coverage</a> on “<a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20081208,00.html">bad teachers</a>.” This dismissal of professional educators’ expertise, combined with cuts to education budgets, <a href="https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/the-prize/9780544810907">created openings for philanthropists to influence policy</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People carrying placards." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers, parents and students line up to protest for higher school funding and teacher pay in April 2018 in Phoenix before a teacher strike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Biden and other candidates distanced themselves from education reform priorities and called for renewed investment in public education after decades of austerity. </p>
<p>My research into their platforms shows explicit support for <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/reinvest-in-public-education/">raising teachers’ salaries</a>, <a href="https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/public-education">collective bargaining</a> and <a href="https://issues.juliancastro.com/people-first-education/">equitable educational opportunities for all students</a>. </p>
<p>Biden and many Democratic candidates have close personal connections to public education: Jill Biden, for example, has a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/19/jill-biden-plans-to-return-to-her-day-job-even-if-she-becomes-first-lady.html">doctorate in education and teaches at a community college</a>. But the shift among Democrats is also a response to the rise of education activism in the U.S. over the past decade, led by a more militant teachers’ union movement. It’s had some success refocusing public attention on what students and teachers need to succeed.</p>
<h2>A decade of education activism</h2>
<p>The Chicago Teachers’ Union’s (CTU) three-week strike in 2012 was a watershed moment. The CTU developed a bargaining platform, “<a href="https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/Chicago%20Teachers%20Union%20report_0.pdf">The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve</a>,” focused on student needs for a well-rounded curriculum, support services and fully funded schools. </p>
<p>To generate support for the platform and a possible strike, <a href="https://labornotes.org/store/jump-start-your-union">CTU leadership organized members and built relationships with parents, neighbourhood organizations and faith groups</a>. Other <a href="https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1564-6">teachers’ unions adopted CTU’s method of focusing demands on how schools ought to care for the whole student</a>.</p>
<p>After the CTU strike, <a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/618-more-than-a-score">the movement against high-stakes standardized testing</a> gained momentum. Critics drew attention to instructional time lost to testing, how testing narrowed the academic curriculum and problems using test scores to evaluate teachers and schools.</p>
<h2>Moratorium on expanding charter schools</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a suit at a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called for a moratorium on expanding charter schools in 2016. Derrick Johnson, NAACP president, at a Boston news conference, Dec. 12, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Steven Senne)</span></span>
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<p>In 2016, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called for <a href="https://www.naacp.org/latest/statement-regarding-naacps-resolution-moratorium-charter-schools/">a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools</a> until they were subject to the same regulations as traditional public schools. Despite criticism for this stance voiced by some <a href="https://educationpost.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-naacps-stance-on-charter-schools/">education advocates in Black communities</a>, the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2017-07-27/naacp-again-calls-for-moratorium-on-charter-schools">NAACP renewed this call in 2017</a>.</p>
<p>Teachers’ activism reached a high point in 2018, when over <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/red-for-ed-movement-teachers-unions-covid-19">375,000 educators took part in work stoppages</a>. Teachers went on strike in <a href="https://beltpublishing.com/products/55-strong-inside-the-west-virginia-teachers-strike">West Virginia</a>, <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2955-red-state-revolt">Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona</a>, Colorado and North Carolina. </p>
<p>With broad public support, they demanded restoring funding to reverse declining wages and student resources and cuts to curriculum. When United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) went on strike in 2019 for “<a href="https://www.utla.net/sites/default/files/UTLA_SLASDFINAL.pdf">The Schools L.A. Children Deserve</a>,” a major concern was the impact of charter schools on funding for traditional public school schools. </p>
<p>Among UTLA’s supporters were Senators Kamala Harris, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/berniesanders/posts/i-stand-in-solidarity-with-utla-teachers-in-los-angeles-who-went-on-strike-today/2093366217385038/">Bernie Sanders</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1084852094794907650">Elizabeth Warren</a> — all eventual contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination.</p>
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<h2>Why Canadians should care</h2>
<p>Expanding charter schools and school vouchers, along with pressuring schools to accelerate standardized testing haven’t been a silver bullet for fixing problems in American public schools. </p>
<p>Rather, they contributed to the rise of a robust movement of educators, teachers’ unions and community and political allies who support a well-resourced public school system that both meets the needs of diverse students and values educators as professionals. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-funding-is-needed-for-student-well-being-not-only-coronavirus-safety-rules-140818">School funding is needed for student well-being, not only coronavirus safety rules</a>
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<p>Canada has a long history of teachers’ union activism. Teachers in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/1534959/b-c-teachers-strike-the-timeline/">British Columbia</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/teachers-work-to-rule-job-action-contract-dispute-union-nstu-1.3870651">Nova Scotia</a> and <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6420752/ontario-4-teachers-unions-job-action/">Ontario</a> have engaged in job actions since 2014. </p>
<p>As COVID-19 pressures provinces to re-think schooling, and as teachers’ unions continue to underscore the <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/08/31/news/ontario-teachers-unions-file-health-and-safety-complaint">perils of underfunding for both teacher and student health</a> and wellness, we should watch to see if the activism of Canadian educators and allies becomes even more dynamic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel K. Brickner has received funding from the Harrison-McCain Foundation. She has been a member of Educators for Social Justice-Nova Scotia and is currently the Chair of Democrats Abroad-Atlantic Provinces. </span></em></p>The push to expand charter schools in the U.S. contributed to a robust movement of teachers’ unions and allies demanding a well-resourced public school system.Rachel K. Brickner, Professor of Politics, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1414342020-07-07T19:54:09Z2020-07-07T19:54:09ZCharter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345384/original/file-20200702-111269-3z5ji8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C251%2C2658%2C1396&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beginning in September in Alberta, an individual can apply directly to the provincial government when seeking to establish a new charter school. Here, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, March 20, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Alberta, the once-radical idea of charter schools, placed largely on the back burner for the past two decades, has been brought back to the fore under Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party (UCP). The party’s <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/assets/documents/educ-choice-in-education-act-what-is-changing.pdf">Choice in Education Act</a> will come <a href="https://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=bills_status&selectbill=015&legl=30&session=2">into force Sept. 1, after the government passed it June 24</a>. </p>
<p>Under the new act, individuals will be able to <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7000587/alberta-government-ucp-charter-schools-home-schooling-education-may/">bypass the local school board</a> and apply directly to the provincial government to seek to establish a charter school. This follows a move last fall by the newly elected UCP to <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/parents-educators-worry-ucps-amended-education-act-creates-inequity-in-public-system">remove the cap</a> (previously 15) on the number of <a href="http://www.taapcs.ca">charter schools in the province</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.taapcs.ca/members-2/">In Alberta</a>, there are now <a href="https://education.alberta.ca/alberta-education/school-authority-index/everyone/school-authority-information-reports/">13 charter school authorities operating more than 20 schools or campuses</a> — for instance, the province lists seven Calgary schools run by the <a href="https://www.ffca-calgary.com/">Foundations for the Future Charter Academy</a>. </p>
<p>These recent developments provide the opportunity to better understand what charter schools are, how they’ve been taken up by advocates of educational reform and how their re-emergence and promotion under the UCP reflects the influence of neoconservative and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755">neoliberal ideologies</a> in education. </p>
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<h2>Roots of charter schools</h2>
<p>Charter schools emerged largely from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chicago-school-of-economics">Chicago School of Economics</a>, inspired by the ideas of prominent thinkers like <a href="https://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEFriedmanRoleOfGovttable.pdf">Milton Friedman</a>. Friedman argued state “monopoly” over public education was problematic, and thus education should be instead subject to consumer choices and the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/politics-markets-and-americas-schools/">dynamics of the free market</a>.</p>
<p>While differing based on country and context, charter schools can be understood as a hybrid type of school — both public and private. Individuals or groups may seek <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/charter-schools.aspx">to establish a school</a> under a particular educational philosophy or approach. This charter then guides the administration and organization of the school. </p>
<p>To date, Alberta’s charter schools include a schools for children who are “<a href="https://www.newhorizons.ca/about/">academically gifted</a>,” <a href="https://indspire.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/MECCS-Final.pdf">an Indigenous school</a> and a school <a href="http://esl-almadina.com/about/about-us/">for children learning English</a>.</p>
<p>As public institutions, however, charter schools must still abide by the <a href="https://education.alberta.ca/media/3227599/charter-schools-handbook-september-2015.pdf">policies, rules and regulations</a> set out by the government. In this way, these schools can be seen as offering students and parents choice different from the local public school.</p>
<p>With funding is typically determined on a per-pupil basis, if parents decide not to choose a particular charter school, it may then close. Charter schools are also subject to competitive market pressures and often have to raise capital funding for expenses such as the school building or transportation themselves. That means charter schools may turn to fundraising from <a href="https://www.thecaafoundation.com/about1">community-based</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHRYAHyplko">corporate</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/enbridge/enbridge-helps-mother-earth-childrens-charter-school-find-new-home/400919133287752/">sources</a>. In the U.S., for instance, some charter schools can be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_htSPGAY7I">run as for-profit</a> entities.</p>
<h2>Entry into Alberta</h2>
<p>Charter schools, once hailed as a solution to <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=PjqcqVl98zQC&source=gbs_navlinks_s">the numerous apparent failures</a> of the public education system, arrived in <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-alberta-public-charter-school-system/">Alberta with the first school opening in 1994</a>, just two years after the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/charter-school">first charter school opened in the United States</a>. </p>
<p>Up until recently, discussion around their future or promise in Alberta has been somewhat ambiguous. But <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/bill-8-gsas-school-fees-power-of-boards-to-be-tweaked-under-education-amendment-act">since the UCP</a> was elected last year, the provincial government has sought to revive charter schools as part of broader educational and public sector reforms. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-jason-kenneys-common-sense-education-platform-gets-it-wrong-119069">Why Jason Kenney’s 'common sense' education platform gets it wrong</a>
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<h2>‘School choice’</h2>
<p>As the UCP government’s <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/speech-from-the-throne-to-kick-off-11-week-session">throne speech</a> outlined, the party stresses expanding school choice. For instance, new legislation makes it easier for parents to home-school since they will <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bill-15-choice-in-education-act-introduced-1.5587398">no longer need Alberta school board supervision to do so</a>.</p>
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<p>Last fall, the UCP also <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/public-alberta-school-boards-1.5275561">removed the word “public”</a> from Alberta’s public schools boards, a move that can be critically viewed as <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/kenney-government-orders-alberta-public-schools-to-remove-the-word-public-from-their-name/">an attempt to obfuscate</a> the demarcation between public and private schools. </p>
<p>Kenney, himself a <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jason-kenney">product of elite private schooling</a>, appears focused on the expansion of more privatized forms of education. </p>
<p>Charter advocates contend that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/431184?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">as schools of choice</a>, they offer students more specialized and meaningful educational experiences. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2017/12/Blasetti%3ASilva.pdf">Critics often respond</a> that choice is already available in public school systems and that charters don’t demonstrate any significant improvements in performance, and may in fact <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19879714">further segregate</a> students, leading to greater educational inequalities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.teachers.ab.ca/News%20Room/ata%20news/Vol53/Number-11/Pages/Q-and-A-Charter-education-is-not-public-education.aspx">Educational labour unions remain unsupportive</a> as well, as charters often seek to hire <a href="https://slate.com/business/2016/09/the-lengths-that-charter-schools-go-to-when-their-teachers-try-to-form-unions.html">non-unionized</a> teachers. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the evidence <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED526353.pdf">remains mixed</a> as to whether charters provide any significant improvements to student achievement. The research and policy landscape is often contentious and heavily influenced by competing <a href="https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research/selected-publications/the-institutional-landscape-of-interest-group-politics-and-school-choice">interest groups</a>.</p>
<h2>Privatization</h2>
<p>In Canada, charter schools only exist in Alberta — a province with a <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/the-politics-of-educational-reform-in-alberta-2">history of school choice policies</a>. As I discussed in my research into <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2015.991162">the development of Alberta’s charter schools</a>, their existence can be largely attributed to political ideas rather than educational developments in the province. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Charter schools were first introduced in Alberta under former premier Ralph Klein’s Progressive Conservative Party in 1994. Here, Klein in front of a campaign poster in February 2001.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
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<p>In 1994, when charters were first introduced in Alberta, it was under a <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ralph-klein">provincial government focused largely on values of individualism, consumerism, privatization, commercialization and deficit reduction</a>. Charter schools emerged as they fit in under this particular political and economic ideology. </p>
<p>Today we see many of the <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/united-conservative-party-mla-the-idea-of-public-education-is-inanity-and-absolutely-backwards">same values</a> once again on the rise in Alberta at the same time as charters and “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/charter-school-cap-removal-criticized-1.5164989">school choice” ideas are being amplified</a>.</p>
<p>Neoconservative and neoliberal advocates of educational reform in particular continue to push them forward — <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/21624">as witnessed in the United States</a> under <a href="https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/local-perspectives/grant-frost-will-trumps-war-on-public-schools-cross-into-canada-410788/">President Donald Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-cyber-charter-schools-are-and-why-their-growth-should-worry-us-68471">What cyber charter schools are and why their growth should worry us</a>
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<h2>Educational reforms and democracy</h2>
<p>While educational reforms can and must occur in response to a changing world, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/public-school-and-political-ideas-1">public schools are meant to be resistant</a> to political changes because they represent our core democratic values and are meant to develop to serve the needs of a diverse society.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly then, the debate over charter schools points to the fundamental political nature of public education. </p>
<p>Recent pre-pandemic educational reforms proposed in Ontario for mandatory online courses were seen by many educators, parents and students not as learning improvements, but rather as reforms motivated by a Conservative government with similar neoliberal <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2020/01/13/secret-document-shows-ford-government-changed-its-mind-before-making-online-course-mandatory-for-high-schoolers.html">politics, ideas and value systems</a>. </p>
<p>Ontario also touted its <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/edu/en/2019/11/ontario-brings-learning-into-the-digital-age.html">“enhanced” (mandatory) online learning as offering “more choice.”</a> Those advocating <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8TZIhpIV6c">school vouchers</a> and the <a href="https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/matthew-lau-after-doug-ford-maybe-ontarios-liberals-will-finally-embrace-school-choice">expansion of charter schools</a> in Ontario have used the same rhetoric. </p>
<h2>Education as industry?</h2>
<p>With Alberta’s charter schools set now to expand, as I asserted in 2015, it is worth noting that to date, the rest of Canada has continued to largely — <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/42892">though not entirely</a> — resist calls for “school choice” that imply forms of privatization. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, across Canada, chronic public underfunding of education has forced school boards to seek <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-high-schools-are-underfunded-and-turning-to-international-tuition-to-help-127753">tuition revenue</a> and promote <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/secret-document-exposes-doug-fords-plan-to-replace-human-teachers-with-cheap-computers/">for-profit curriculums</a>.</p>
<p>The presence of privatization looms large and when education is defined as an industry, there will always be those who seek to <a href="https://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/edtech-industry-profit-from-covid-19-lahm-200323/">profit from it</a>. </p>
<p>As Canadians, the rejection of charter schools demonstrates our collective commitment to the some of the most important core principles of public education, including access, quality and equity. The idea of charter schools allows us to think deeply about our core values surrounding public education and the many promises which it’s asked to uphold.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Mindzak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>First, the United Conservative Party lifted the cap on charter schools, and now new legislation has cut school boards out of the process to establish a charter school.Michael Mindzak, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1254662019-10-18T11:22:29Z2019-10-18T11:22:29ZThe Chicago teachers’ strike isn’t just about kids – it’s about union power too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297568/original/file-20191017-98648-1d02q0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chicago's teachers are on strike for the first time since 2012.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chicago-Schools-Strike/8370c6493d614f0ab916e55ac439e8a4/2/0">AP Photo/Martha Irvine</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Classes in Chicago’s public schools were canceled starting Oct. 17 as more than 25,000 teachers in the nation’s <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2019/comm/largest-school-districts.html">third-largest school district</a> went on strike in what they’re calling a fight for “<a href="https://abc7chicago.com/education/live-thousands-of-striking-cps-teachers-hit-picket-lines-across-city-/5625169/">justice and equity</a>” for their students.</p>
<p>The strike, the city’s first in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2012/09/19/us/illinois-chicago-teachers-strike/index.html">seven years</a>, marks what has been a tumultuous year for labor negotiations in urban school districts around the country. Thirty thousand Los Angeles school teachers went on a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/us/los-angeles-teachers-strike-day-6/index.html">six-day strike</a> in January. The next month, approximately 2,600 teachers walked out of the classroom for <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/14/18224848/denver-teachers-strike-over-deal">three days in Denver</a>, and 3,000 teachers picketed for <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/4/18249872/oakland-teachers-strike-pay-raise">a week in Oakland</a>.</p>
<p>Many of the demands the unions are making almost certainly would benefit students. But beneath the rallying cries, these unions are facing a new reality that suggests they are also fighting for something else.</p>
<p>In 2018, the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2017/16-1466">Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME</a> that workers are free to choose whether to join a union. Since then, we’d argue, teacher strikes have been as much a fight for the soul of the union as they are for the soul of public education. What the teachers’ unions want and need is membership. </p>
<p>The deals that teachers’ unions negotiate with school districts matter more than ever for maintaining their membership and political power in the post-Janus world. As education policy scholars who have studied <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JAZULk0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">teachers’ unions</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NDkwqOQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">teacher collective bargaining</a> for more than a decade, we have read thousands of agreements like the ones negotiated in <a href="https://www.utla.net/news/tentative-agreement-2019">Los Angeles</a>, <a href="https://denverteachers.org/we-fight-we-win/">Denver</a> and <a href="https://oaklandea.org/updates/oea-reaches-tentative-agreement-with-ousd/">Oakland</a> in early 2019 and will soon be forged in Chicago.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parents and students joined striking Los Angeles Unified District teachers in front of Evelyn Thurman Gratts Elementary School in Los Angeles in January 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Los-Angeles-Teachers-Strike/0184d7cb63254905a8a32ac0094aa005/36/0">Richard Vogel</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Negotiating for numbers</h2>
<p>What does negotiating for membership look like?</p>
<p>The agreements that unions are securing establish teacher salaries, restrictions on the length of the workday, performance evaluation procedures and other important working conditions. But they also set staffing levels for teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors. In short, teachers are bargaining to increase staffing – and in particular, staff who can also join the union. If they can increase staffing, they can increase membership and ensure their future. </p>
<p>With a 16% raise on the table, the Chicago Teachers’ Union <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/10/16/20918124/chicago-teachers-union-strike-cps-public-schools-house-delegates">is asking</a> for a contract that guarantees smaller class sizes. With fewer students in each classroom, the school system will need to employ more teachers. In addition, the union aims to increase the number of nonteaching staff employed, such as nurses, librarians, social workers and counselors. All of these new hires will be potential union members.</p>
<p>Consider the <a href="https://www.utla.net/news/tentative-agreement-2019">three-year deal</a> that the teachers’ union secured in Los Angeles in January. Along with a 6% salary increase, the deal included numerous staffing guarantees that equate to more membership for the Los Angeles teachers’ union: 300 nurses, 82 librarians and 77 counselors. Because the contract reduced class size by four students in grades 4 through 12 over the duration of the contract, it requires the school district to add new teachers.</p>
<p>The Oakland teachers’ union followed a similar playbook for their <a href="https://oaklandea.org/updates/oea-reaches-tentative-agreement-with-ousd/">four-year deal</a> in February. The union secured an 11% raise over the next four years and a modest reduction in class size by the 2021-22 school year. Additionally, the new contract lowers the counselor-to-student ratio, establishes new caseload limits for school psychologists and speech and language pathologists and increases staffing levels at schools with 50 or more students who are new to the country.</p>
<p>All of those provisions require the district to add more educators. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297544/original/file-20191017-98666-19ssbqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297544/original/file-20191017-98666-19ssbqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297544/original/file-20191017-98666-19ssbqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297544/original/file-20191017-98666-19ssbqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297544/original/file-20191017-98666-19ssbqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297544/original/file-20191017-98666-19ssbqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297544/original/file-20191017-98666-19ssbqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297544/original/file-20191017-98666-19ssbqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers, students and supporters rallied in front of City Hall in Oakland, California, in February 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Oakland-Teachers-Strike/99b9ba96c9fc4ec9bfd16e13c8bc4beb/6/0">AP Photo/Jeff Chiu</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Organizing charter school teachers</h2>
<p>Not only are teachers’ unions fighting for increased staffing levels, they are using contract negotiations to limit the transfer of teachers to <a href="https://www.educationdive.com/news/as-teacher-protests-escalate-non-union-educators-express-mixed-feelings/554282/">nonunion schools</a> that pose a threat to their membership levels.</p>
<p>The unions in Los Angeles and Oakland took a hard stance on charter schools in their negotiations. In Los Angeles, the teachers’ union <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/UTLA-talks-Charter-School-LAUSD-Strike-approaching-503401771.html">called for</a> an eight- to 10-month moratorium on new charter schools, something the local school board cannot provide. However, the Los Angeles Unified School District <a href="https://www.utla.net/news/school-board-approves-moratorium-charters">agreed to endorse</a> such a moratorium and lobby California’s governor to that end.</p>
<p>The Oakland teachers’ union secured a nearly identical commitment from the school district to lobby the state legislature for the same moratorium. A final <a href="https://www.cta.org/Issues-and-Action/Charter-Schools.aspx">union-backed bill</a>, which stopped short of a full stop on new charters but which imposed new restrictions, received <a href="https://edsource.org/2019/new-era-for-charter-schools-newsom-signs-bill-with-compromises-he-negotiated/618099">the California governor’s signature</a> in October. The Chicago teachers’ union secured <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/ct-chicago-charter-schools-teachers-union-edit-1026-20161025-story.html">a cap on charter school expansion</a> in their last contract negotiations in 2016. </p>
<p>Even while they attempt to limit charter growth, unions are seeking to <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/12/14/the-teachers-unions-have-a-charter-school.html">organize charter teachers</a>. The teachers at more than a quarter of Chicago’s 121 charter schools belong to the Chicago Teachers’ Union. A similar share of the 277 charter schools in Los Angeles are organized by its teachers’ union. Only two of Oakland’s 44 charters, however, are unionized.</p>
<p>The teachers at some of the charter schools in <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-met-acero-strike-agreement-20181209-story.html">Chicago</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-lausd-strike-accelerated-school-20190114-story.html">Los Angeles</a> went on strike in the past year, for the first in the nation’s history.</p>
<p>All in all, our rough calculations suggest that the <a href="https://achieve.lausd.net/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=45663&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=73638&PageID=1">staffing provisions</a> in the Los Angeles contract could have added over 1,500 members to the the Los Angeles teachers’ union’s membership. This would equate to about a 5% increase in the union’s ranks of at least <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/13/684645947/los-angeles-teachers-are-moving-forward-with-a-strike">30,000 educators</a>. The Oakland teachers’ union could be getting a similar boost.</p>
<h2>Gaining members</h2>
<p>It’s too early to tell what will happen in Chicago, but a contract with robust staffing guarantees will likely add membership to the union ranks. </p>
<p>In a post-Janus world, unions are showcasing the viability of the picket line as a way to win contracts that bolster membership. Not only that, but because only union members can vote to authorize a strike, union leadership can leverage strike votes to petition – or pressure – nonunion members to join the movement.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles union reports <a href="https://www.utla.net/sites/default/files/UTLA_PUB_Sept18-low-rez.pdf">adding over 1,000 members</a> during its strike vote. The Denver union says it <a href="https://www.cpr.org/news/story/the-strength-behind-the-denver-teacher-strike-is-the-unions-swelling-membership">added 250</a> during its authorization vote. </p>
<p>So why are teachers’ unions striking with increased frequency? We believe that unions are fighting for their survival.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com/teacher-unions-say-theyre-fighting-for-students-and-schools-what-they-really-want-is-more-members-112735">March 4, 2019</a>.</em></p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>To fund her work on teachers' unions and CBAs, Katharine O. Strunk has received research funding from several philanthropic entities, including Arnold Ventures, the Spencer Foundation, the Walton foundation and an anonymous foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bradley D. Marianno does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teachers’ unions often say they go on strike to improve conditions for students. A closer look at recent walkouts suggests they are also fighting for something else: membership.Bradley D. Marianno, Assistant Professor of Educational Policy & Leadership, University of Nevada, Las VegasKatharine O. Strunk, Professor of Education Policy and Economics, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1085702019-05-23T12:40:21Z2019-05-23T12:40:21ZChicago’s Urban Prep Academy – known for 100% college acceptance rates – put reputation ahead of results<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250416/original/file-20181213-178552-yfeeid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite being known for high college acceptance rates, Urban Prep Academies recently lost a charter to operate a school on Chicago's west side.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/The-100-Percenters/ed393e83bd2b47d3900580d0bf2e342d/18/0">Charles Rex Arbogast/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I joined <a href="http://www.urbanprep.org/">Urban Prep Academies</a> in 2006 as the founding math teacher at what was to become the nation’s first all-boys public charter high school, the school’s faculty and staff had one central goal.</p>
<p>We were on a mission to get black boys from Englewood – a racially segregated and economically distressed neighborhood in Chicago, and a community described in the media as one of the city’s <a href="https://wgntv.com/2013/08/25/its-englewood-12-hours-in-one-of-chicagos-most-dangerous-neighborhoods/">most dangerous</a> – to and through college.</p>
<p>Each spring, Urban Prep Academies boasts that <a href="http://www.urbanprep.org/about/100-percent/class-2019">100%</a> of seniors graduating from each of its three campuses gains admission to a four-year college or university. But if you look beneath the 100% college acceptance claim – which sometimes gets <a href="https://www.bet.com/news/national/2013/04/01/100-percent-of-urban-prep-academy-students-going-to-college.html">misinterpreted as 100% actually going to college</a> – you may find results that raise serious questions about the quality of education at the school. </p>
<h2>College acceptance versus college readiness</h2>
<p>For starters, the reality is only <a href="https://schoolreports.cps.edu/SQRP_2018/HS_SQRP_ReportSY18-19_CHARTER_400102.pdf">12.8%</a> of Urban Prep students at the West campus met Illinois’ college readiness benchmarks. Further, only about <a href="https://schoolreports.cps.edu/SQRP_2018/HS_SQRP_ReportSY18-19_CHARTER_400102.pdf">two-thirds</a> of the class of 2017 at Urban Prep’s West campus actually enrolled in college. A little less than <a href="https://schoolreports.cps.edu/SQRP_2018/HS_SQRP_ReportSY18-19_CHARTER_400102.pdf">44%</a> of the school’s 2016 graduates were <a href="https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/02/three-keys-college-persistence/">persisting</a> in college based on the latest report. </p>
<p>In a statement to The Conversation, school officials maintained that a major reason its graduates don’t persist in college is due to lack of money.</p>
<p>“The number one reason we are given as why Urban Prep graduates choose not to continue pursuing their degree is a lack of financial resources and proper supports at the colleges they attend,” Dennis Lacewell, chief academic officer at Urban Prep Academies, wrote in an e-mail to The Conversation. “This is consistent with national data related to first-generation and black male students going to college.”</p>
<p>However, in my own and <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED531591">other higher education scholarship</a>, lack of money is sometimes related to students’ <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=qqxn5B4AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate#d=gs_md_cita-d&u=%2Fcitations%3Fview_op%3Dview_citation%26hl%3Den%26user%3Dqqxn5B4AAAAJ%26sortby%3Dpubdate%26citation_for_view%3Dqqxn5B4AAAAJ%3AWqliGbK-hY8C%26tzom%3D300">lack of academic preparation</a> for college. For instance, at least two young men who participated in my <a href="http://hepg.org/hep-home/books/urban-preparation">study of Urban Prep’s graduates</a> revealed that they lost an academic scholarship because of low GPAs. </p>
<h2>West campus recommended for closure</h2>
<p>The future of one of the school’s campuses – Urban Prep West – became imperiled in December 2018 when officials at Chicago Public Schools <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/cps-chicago-public-schools-closing-charters-urban-prep-west-kwame-nkrumah/">recommended shutting it down</a>. That decision was later <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/chicago/2019/03/20/overturning-chicagos-denial-illinois-charter-commission-approves-two-schools/">overturned by the Illinois State Charter School Commission</a>.</p>
<p>When the school was in danger of closing, “<a href="http://thechicagocitizen.com/news/2018/dec/19/not-everyone-sad-see-urban-prep-closing/">some students stated</a>” that they “didn’t care” if the school closed down or that it was “good” that it was closing. </p>
<p>One student spoke about how the <a href="http://thechicagocitizen.com/news/2018/dec/19/not-everyone-sad-see-urban-prep-closing/">“teachers put on a show”</a> for parents, but treat students badly “behind closed doors.”</p>
<h2>Reflections from Urban Prep graduates</h2>
<p>Urban Prep graduates expressed similar sentiments when <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pl1lWckAAAAJ&hl=en">sociologist Derrick Brooms</a> and I originally set out to conduct the research that led to my book – <a href="http://hepg.org/hep-home/books/urban-preparation">“Urban Preparation: Young Black Men from Chicago’s South Side to Success in Higher Education.”</a> Our aim was to describe how students at Urban Prep saw the school in terms of helping them complete college.</p>
<p>Two of the young men shared how they felt like “commodities” and “caged in” at Urban Prep. Another young man revealed that “there was more time being put into the look of the school than the actual students.”</p>
<p>These young men admitted they did not want to let the school’s supporters down. They said they did whatever was asked of them to gain admission to college, which they knew would reflect well on the school. The young men’s comments point to pressure they felt to “look” the part of being college-ready, despite feeling as if they may not have initially had the necessary academic tools to succeed in college.</p>
<p>Several of the young men reported that they rarely felt academically “challenged” during their four years at the high school. Those who got to take an Advanced Placement course tended to agree these courses made them feel most prepared for college. Still, these young men’s broader reflections on their academic preparation, transition to college, as well as data from the <a href="https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/School.aspx?schoolId=15016299025010C">Illinois Report Card</a>, reveal that Urban Prep may have invested more in a portrait of academic success than they did in providing high quality educational experiences.</p>
<h2>New lease on life</h2>
<p>These criticisms aside, for other students and officials at Urban Prep, the March decision to allow the school to stay open is – as founder and CEO Tim King stated in a recent letter to supporters – a “major triumph.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tim King, head of Urban Prep Academies, speaks during an interview in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chicago-Mayor-Challenges/dad7a23f97574f0eb8cc3c2b24f43b3f/9/0">M. Spencer Green/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Publicly available data show that the school’s <a href="https://schoolreports.cps.edu/SQRP_2018/HS_SQRP_ReportSY18-19_CHARTER_400102.pdf">SAT scores and other indicators of college and career readiness</a> remain a troubling reality. For instance, Urban Prep West students averaged scores in the 31st percentile on the SAT, which is considered “<a href="https://www.collegesimply.com/guides/950-on-the-sat/maryland/">pretty low</a>.” </p>
<p>Lacewell, the chief academic officer at Urban Prep, told The Conversation that Urban Prep students “outperform their peer groups on myriad metrics including high school graduation rates, daily attendance rates, standardized test growth.” Technically, that is <a href="https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/AdvancedCompareSchools.aspx?source=environment&source2=financeprofile&Schoolid=15016299025016C,150162990250844,150162990250841,150162990250831,150162990250616&sourceid=15016299025016C">true</a>.</p>
<p>However, not everyone is convinced that Urban Prep West deserves to stay open.</p>
<p>“The school is not set up to be successful, and we are potentially just delaying a school closure because they’re not going to be able to do the turnaround that needs to happen,” Bill Farmer, one of two members of the Illinois State Charter School Commission who voted against keeping the school open, <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/chicago/2019/03/20/overturning-chicagos-denial-illinois-charter-commission-approves-two-schools/">stated at a hearing</a> in March. “There needs to be a bigger systemic approach to infuse areas with the appropriate resources they need.”</p>
<h2>Race at the center: Looking beyond 100% college acceptance</h2>
<p>Much of what the public knows about Urban Prep is based on images of clean cut young black men doning black blazers, button-down shirts and red ties, <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/education/urban-prep-holds-annual-college-signing-day-event-at-daley-plaza-/3478004/">sporting the baseball cap of the college</a> they intend to enroll. But that is where the cameras stop rolling. And this is precisely where the public must continue to ask probing questions such as: Do they enroll college, do they persist and do they complete? And most importantly, do these young black men feel prepared to pursue their own dreams despite being confronted by “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00405841.2016.1116852?casa_token=0aoxpRO9Cq8AAAAA:_YG0y1L2_A_q9zeVdz9BmCxr1NvhfrP7KxdL33vtjazJhNPe-IaVXEtN-gAx4U5epS0_cuUgOMo">antiblack racism</a>?”</p>
<p>Boasting about 100% college acceptance rates claiming to “change the narrative” about young black men and boys does very little to answer these questions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chezare A. Warren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Urban Prep Academy in Chicago made a name by boasting about its 100% college acceptance rates for graduating seniors. A founding teacher at Urban Prep explains why that statistic is misleading.Chezare A. Warren, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1129182019-03-08T11:44:38Z2019-03-08T11:44:38ZCharter school cap efforts gain momentum<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262786/original/file-20190307-82661-dfjdin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students, parents and teachers participate in a school choice rally in Jackson, Mississippi</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/School-Choice/f93b43e7e555471bab439d6daf1f1b6c/23/0">Rogelio V. Solis/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/01/30/major-step-los-angeles-school-board-calls-moratorium-new-charter-schools/">California</a> to <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/25/tony-evers-seeks-freeze-vouchers-suspend-charter-expansion/2971998002/">Wisconsin</a>, efforts to stop charter school growth are gaining momentum. In the April 2019 mayoral election in Chicago, both candidates say they want to halt <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/02/28/chicago-voters-send-two-black-women-mayoral-runoff-both-them-want-halt-charter-school-expansion/?utm_term=.17960ca2eb25">charter school expansion</a>.</p>
<p>Financial issues lie at the core of these efforts. </p>
<p>Schools were hit particularly hard by the 2008 recession. Many states <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-punishing-decade-for-school-funding">cut education funding</a>. As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X9eY-M8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of school finance</a>, I would argue that charter school expansion is making this bad situation worse. </p>
<h2>Trends in school finance</h2>
<p>In my home state of Pennsylvania, schools watched US$1 billion disappear when former Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, both cut <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/08/23/perfect-storm-threatens-philadelphia-schools/">state funding</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/pa-schools-are-the-nations-most-inequitable-the-new-governor-wants-to-fix-that/2015/04/22/3d2f4e3e-e441-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html">refused to replace federal stimulus funding</a>.</p>
<p>A similar pattern unfolded across the country. In 2015, 29 states were still <a href="https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/punishing-decade-education-funding-states/">providing less money per pupil</a> than before the recession began. In most states, state aid is designed to assist districts with <a href="http://funded.edbuild.org/national#formula-type">high needs</a> and <a href="http://funded.edbuild.org/national#poverty">low wealth</a>. As a result, high-poverty districts were <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/688011/summary">hurt the most by state cuts</a>.</p>
<p>School finance scholars often consider school funding systems fair when they give additional funds to districts with the greatest needs. For instance, in conjunction with the Education Law Center of New Jersey, Bruce Baker, an education finance scholar at Rutgers University, has developed a measure of school funding fairness. In a majority of states, Baker found that <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/josi.12187">funding fairness declined</a> in the five years after the Great Recession. </p>
<h2>Why funding disparities matter</h2>
<p>A number of politicians, such as <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/06/09/531908094/devos-says-more-money-wont-help-schools-research-says-otherwise">Education Secretary Betsy Devos</a>, <a href="https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/opinion/2017/02/26/accountability-needed-education-money/98445554/">reformers</a>, and <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/spending-more-money-on-schools-doesnt-help-students-learn">pundits</a> claim that education spending does not impact student learning. They are wrong.</p>
<p>Over and over, rigorous research has shown that <a href="http://hepg.org/hep-home/books/educational-inequality-and-school-finance">money matters</a> and that increases in funding for low-income students have a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/18/686696835/spending-more-on-education-for-low-income-kids-improves-their-prospects-as-adult">positive impact on outcomes</a>. No matter how we define those outcomes – from scores on standardized tests to the probability a student will experience poverty as an adult – the <a href="https://works.bepress.com/c_kirabo_jackson/38/">results are consistent</a>. Anyone who says otherwise is misinformed.</p>
<h2>The impact of charter expansion</h2>
<p>The details of how charter school funding is structured differs by state, and even by districts within a given state. Despite this variation, a number of studies have shown that charter school growth <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/exploring-the-consequences-of-charter-school-expansion-in-u-s-cities/">hurts the finances of nearby public school districts</a>. Recent studies from <a href="https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/EDFP_a_00121">New York</a> and <a href="https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/edfp_a_00272?journalCode=edfp">North Carolina</a> have found that charter expansion negatively impacts local districts’ finances above and beyond simply losing per pupil revenue because of declining enrollments.</p>
<p>In Pennsylvania, the local district makes <a href="https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Pages/Charter-School-Funding.aspx">a tuition payment to the charter school enrolling each student from that district</a>. The payment is based on per-pupil <a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/pa/title-24-ps-education/pa-st-sect-24-17-1725-a.html">spending for similar students</a>. For example, if a fourth grader leaves a public school in the Pittsburgh School District to attend a charter, the Pittsburgh School District is <a href="https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Pages/Charter-School-Funding.aspx">required to pay the charter school</a> <a href="https://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Charter%20School%20Funding/CSFunding%20SelExp%202018-2019.xlsx">$16,805.99</a> – which is the average amount the district spends on a student in the district.</p>
<p>At first glance, it perhaps makes sense to have money follow the children. The problem is that increased charter enrollments rarely allow a district to save as much as they lose in charter tuition. As a result, without additional revenue from state governments or local taxes, districts are forced to make budget cuts and spend less on the students who remain in traditional public schools. </p>
<p>Consider an example. Bethlehem Area School District paid $25 million in charter school tuition payments in 2017. It was not possible to save $25 million with the students gone, however, because of the way the students were distributed across the district.</p>
<p>The students enrolled in charter schools came from 13 different grades in 22 different schools. Since students moving to a charter were rarely all of the students from a single school, grade or class, the district was not able to reduce staff or close classes to help cover the charter tuition payments. If next year’s third grade class goes from 28 students to 26 students in a school, district officials still need to keep that third grade class open. They cannot pay that teacher 2/28th less, heat 2/28th less of that classroom, or reduce the operation of electricity in that classroom by 2/28th. </p>
<p>Yet, if the class went from 28 to 26 students because two students enrolled in charters, the district needs to make tuition payments for the missing students. When those payments are repeated and distributed unevenly across schools and grades, it adds up to millions of dollars. Students move between districts all the time, but <a href="https://www.education.pa.gov/Teachers%20-%20Administrators/School%20Finances/Finances/FinancialDataElements/Pages/default.aspx">nowhere near the scale</a> – nor with the fiscal impact – that takes place because of charter expansion. Bethlehem Area School District had 1,900 students, about <a href="https://www.pasbo.org/files/BudgetReport2017.pdf">12 percent</a> of the district’s population, enrolled in charter schools in 2017.</p>
<p>As Bethlehem Area School District’s business manager <a href="https://www.pasa-net.org/Files/SurveysAndReports/2017/BudgetReportJan2017.pdf">explained in a recent survey</a> describing the challenges the district faces because of charter tuition payments, “there’s nothing left to cut.” Across the state, mandated costs are growing faster than the money many districts have coming in: <a href="https://www.williampennfoundation.org/what-we-are-learning/forecasting-fiscal-futures-pennsylvania-school-districts-where-law-and-current">costs for faculty and staff benefits like health insurance and pension payments</a>, <a href="https://www.mcall.com/news/education/mc-nws-special-education-funding-report-20181011-story.html">special education services</a> and <a href="https://www.pasbo.org/files/BudgetReport2017.pdf">charter school tuition payments</a>. </p>
<p>Charter school expansion drains dollars from local districts in other ways as well. For example, charters enroll far fewer students with characteristics that require additional financial resources, including <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-543">students with disabilities</a> and <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED564925.pdf">English language learners</a>. These dynamics compound the financial difficulties for traditional public schools, which are required to educate all students. </p>
<h2>The appeal of charter schools</h2>
<p>Research on the academic performance of charter schools is <a href="https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2017-06-30/3-hidden-findings-from-credos-charter-school-performance-study">mixed</a>, though some perform quite well. In New York City, students in a number of well-known charters often <a href="https://credo.stanford.edu/pdfs/nyc_report%202017%2010%2002%20FINAL.pdf">outperform similar students</a> in traditional public schools. It makes sense – the highest-performing charters in New York often spend <a href="https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/spending-major-charter">$2,000 to $4,300 more per pupil</a> than traditional public schools, much of it coming through fund-raising and philanthropic efforts. </p>
<p>Some pundits and politicians like <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-administration-to-renew-school-choice-push-with-5-billion-federal-tax-credits-proposal-2019-02-28">U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz</a> insist charter school expansion will force traditional public schools to improve through competition. I believe it’s dishonest to ask traditional public schools to improve through competition while at the same time creating fiscal difficulties that hamper their ability to compete. </p>
<p>Since the 19th century, American school reformers have focused on making schools and districts <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo12778584.html">larger</a> to <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100004130">lower costs</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Engineering_Inequality.html?id=LdPuuQEACAAJ">save money through economies of scale</a>. But charter schools increase costs by removing these economies of scale and creating multiple school systems within the same district. Until policymakers provide additional funds to deal with the problems that arise from removing economies of scale, charter school moratoriums might provide some temporary relief. However, a moratorium on charter schools will not fix the issue by itself. Public schools need more revenue to deal with the problems created by the money they lose to charter schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Gardner Kelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A number of states are considering laws to put charter school growth on pause, saying they drain resources from public schools. A school finance expert explains the logic behind the efforts.Matthew Gardner Kelly, Assistant Professor of Education, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1127352019-03-04T11:39:50Z2019-03-04T11:39:50ZTeacher unions say they’re fighting for students and schools – what they really want is more members<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261755/original/file-20190302-110115-xda7d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers, students and supporters rally in front of City Hall in Oakland, Calif., in February. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Oakland-Teachers-Strike/99b9ba96c9fc4ec9bfd16e13c8bc4beb/6/0">Jeff Chiu/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When schoolteachers in Los Angeles went on a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/us/la-teacher-strike-deal.html">weeklong strike</a> in January, the head of the local teachers union described it as a “<a href="https://edsource.org/2019/teachers-mobilize-in-los-angeles-but-pathway-to-find-way-out-of-strike-is-murky/607146">battle for the soul of public education</a>.” When Denver public school teachers went on a three-day strike in February, they did it in the name of “<a href="https://denverteachers.org/denver-educators-strike-for-their-students-tomorrow/">schools Denver students deserve</a>.”</p>
<p>When teachers began their strike in Oakland on Feb. 26, the local teachers union repeated this message, voicing that they were “<a href="https://oaklandea.org/updates/we-are-fighting-for-the-schools-oakland-students-deserve/">fighting for the schools Oakland students’ deserve</a>” and in a struggle for the “<a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/this-is-why-oakland-teachers-are-on-strike.html">soul of public education</a>.” The Oakland teachers’ strike <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/striking-oakland-teachers-reach-deal-end-walkout-includes-11-percent-n978476">ended on March 1</a>.</p>
<p>It’s true, many of the demands the unions are making will likely benefit students. But beneath the rallying cries, unions in the public sector are facing a new reality that suggests they are actually fighting for something else.</p>
<p>Ever since the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/us/teacher-unions-fallout-supreme-court-janus.html">Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME</a> in 2018 that workers are free to choose whether to join a union, we’d argue that the teacher strikes have been as much a fight for the soul of the union as they are for the soul of public education. What the teachers’ unions really want and need is membership. As one political science professor told The New York Times: “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/us/teacher-unions-fallout-supreme-court-janus.html">Members and money are power in politics</a>.”</p>
<p>The deals that teachers’ unions negotiate with school districts matter more than ever for maintaining their membership and political power in the post-Janus world. As education policy scholars who have studied <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JAZULk0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">teachers’ unions</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NDkwqOQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">teacher collective bargaining</a> for over a decade, we have read thousands of agreements like the ones just negotiated in Los Angeles, Denver and Oakland. </p>
<h2>Negotiating for numbers</h2>
<p>The agreements that unions are securing establish teacher salaries, restrictions on the length of the workday, performance evaluation procedures and other important working conditions. But they also set staffing levels for teachers, librarians and counselors. In short, if unions can win at the bargaining table they can increase staffing. And if they can increase staffing, they can increase membership and ensure their future. </p>
<p>Consider the deal that the teachers’ union secured in Los Angeles. Along with a 6 percent salary increase – basically the school district’s offer long before the final contract was signed – the deal includes numerous staffing guarantees that equate to more membership for the Los Angeles teachers’ union: 300 nurses, 82 librarians, 77 counselors. The contract reduces class size by four students in grades 4 through 12 over the duration of the contract, requiring the school district to add new teachers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261756/original/file-20190302-110107-uuz5mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Striking Los Angeles Unified District teachers are joined by parents and students in front of Evelyn Thurman Gratts Elementary School in Los Angeles in January.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Los-Angeles-Teachers-Strike/0184d7cb63254905a8a32ac0094aa005/36/0">Richard Vogel</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Oakland teachers’ union used a similar playbook. The union secured an <a href="https://oaklandea.org/updates/oea-reaches-tentative-agreement-with-ousd/">11 percent raise</a> over the next four years and a modest reduction in class size by the 2021-22 school year. Additionally, the new contract lowers the counselor-to-student ratio, establishes new caseload limits for school psychologists and speech and language pathologists, and increases staffing levels at schools with 50 or more students who are new to the country – all provisions that will require the district to add more educators. Finally, the union secured a five-month pause on school closures and consolidations, which will maintain current teaching and support staff positions at those schools.</p>
<h2>Strategy for charter schools</h2>
<p>Not only are teachers’ union fighting for increased staffing levels, but they are also using contract negotiations to limit the transfer of teachers to non-union schools that pose a threat to their membership levels. Both teachers’ unions took a hard stance on charter schools in their negotiations. In Los Angeles, the teachers’ union <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/UTLA-talks-Charter-School-LAUSD-Strike-approaching-503401771.html">called for</a> an eight- to 10-month moratorium on new charter schools, something the Los Angeles Unified School District board cannot provide. However, the Los Angeles Unified School District <a href="https://www.utla.net/news/school-board-approves-moratorium-charters">agreed to endorse</a> such a moratorium and lobby California’s governor to that end.</p>
<p>The Oakland teachers’ union secured a nearly identical commitment from the school district to also lobby the state legislature for the same moratorium. </p>
<p>Even while they attempt to limit charter school growth, the unions are also seeking to <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/12/14/the-teachers-unions-have-a-charter-school.html">organize charter school teachers</a>. Of the 277 charter schools in Los Angeles, 65 of them – or 23 percent – are organized by the Los Angeles teachers’ union. In addition, the new LA contract provides union leaders the opportunity to pick a “coordinator” to work with staff at charter schools that share a campus with a traditional public school. This is essentially a foot in the door to draw membership from the charter sector. In Oakland, only two of the 44 charters – or 5 percent – are unionized and are represented by the parent organization of the Oakland teachers union, the California Teachers Association.</p>
<p>All in all, our rough calculations suggest that the <a href="https://achieve.lausd.net/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=45663&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=73638&PageID=1">staffing provisions</a> in the new Los Angeles contract could add over 1,500 members to the the Los Angeles teachers’ union’s membership. This equates to about a 5 percent increase in the union’s ranks of over <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/13/684645947/los-angeles-teachers-are-moving-forward-with-a-strike">30,000 educators</a>. The Oakland teachers’ union could get a similar boost.</p>
<p>In a post-Janus world, unions are showcasing the viability of the picket line as a way to win contracts that bolster membership. Not only that, because only union members can vote to authorize a strike, union leadership can leverage strike votes to petition – or pressure – non-union members to join the movement. The Los Angeles union reports <a href="https://www.utla.net/sites/default/files/UTLA_PUB_Sept18-low-rez.pdf">adding over 1,000 members</a> during their strike vote. The Denver union reports <a href="https://www.cpr.org/news/story/the-strength-behind-the-denver-teacher-strike-is-the-unions-swelling-membership">adding 250</a> of its 3,800 members during its authorization vote. </p>
<p>So why are teachers’ unions striking with increased frequency? Teachers’ unions are striking to fight for benefits their students need. But also – and perhaps more so – they are striking for membership they need to stay viable after Janus. Unions are fighting for their survival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teachers’ unions often claim they are striking for better schools on behalf of students. A closer look at recent strikes suggests they are fighting for something else: membership.Bradley D. Marianno, Assistant Professor of Educational Policy & Leadership, University of Nevada, Las VegasKatharine O. Strunk, Professor of Education Policy and Economics, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1117922019-02-19T11:30:32Z2019-02-19T11:30:32ZCharter schools exploit lucrative loophole that would be easy to close<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259342/original/file-20190215-56212-1oe12gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some charter school operators make profits by leasing space to themselves at unusually high rates.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-success-concept-businessman-black-suit-1070248853?src=5Uytm7x5Qg5m2cAEe2R8Pg-2-32"> By Ilya Andriyanov from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While critics charge that <a href="https://educationvotes.nea.org/2018/05/27/how-to-prevent-charter-schools-from-draining-away-public-school-funding-in-your-community/">charter schools are siphoning</a> money away from public schools, a more fundamental issue frequently flies under the radar: the questionable business practices that allow people who own and run charter schools to make large profits.</p>
<p>Charter school supporters are <a href="https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/local/ohio-legislation-favors-white-hat-charter-schools/nT5UKhii9ToTksc2yR0o9H/">reluctant to acknowledge</a>, much less <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/charter-schools-are-reshaping-americas-education-system-for-the-worse/">stop</a>, these practices.</p>
<p>Given that charter schools are <a href="https://www.publiccharters.org/latest-news/2015/11/11/charter-school-growth-what-changed-last-10-years">growing rapidly</a> – from 1 million students in 2006 to more than <a href="https://www.publiccharters.org/sites/default/files/documents/2018-03/FINAL%20Estimated%20Public%20Charter%20School%20Enrollment%2C%202017-18.pdf">3.1 million students attending approximately 7,000 charter schools</a> now – shining a light on these practices can’t come too soon. The first challenge, however, is simply understanding the complex space in which charters operate – somewhere between public and private.</p>
<h2>Unregulated competition</h2>
<p>Charters were founded on the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2017-05-08/how-charter-schools-improve-traditional-district-education">theory</a> that market forces and competition would benefit public education. But <a href="http://grandcanyoninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/GCI-Policy-Report-Following-the-Money_Sept_17_2017.pdf">policy reports</a> and local government <a href="https://ohioauditor.gov/auditsearch/Reports/2019/Community_School_Facility_Procurement_Public_Interest_Report.pdf">studies</a> increasingly reveal that the charter school industry is engaging in the type of business practices that have led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-charter-school-fraud-the-next-enron-74020">downfall</a> of other huge industries and companies.</p>
<p>Charter schools <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/auditreports/fy2016/a02m0012.pdf">regularly</a> sign contracts with little oversight, shuffle money between subsidiaries and cut corners that would never fly in the real world of business or traditional public schools – at least not if the business wanted to stay out of bankruptcy and school officials out of jail. The problem has gotten so bad that a nationwide assessment by the U.S. Department of Education warned in a <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/auditreports/fy2016/a02m0012.pdf">2016 audit report</a> that the charter school operations pose a serious “risk of waste, fraud and abuse” and lack “accountability.”</p>
<h2>Self-dealing</h2>
<p>The biggest problem in charter school operations involves facility leases and land purchases. Like any other business, charters need to pay for space. But unlike other businesses, charters too often pay unreasonably high rates – rates that no one else in the community would pay. </p>
<p>One of the latest examples can be found in a January 2019 <a href="https://ohioauditor.gov/auditsearch/Reports/2019/Community_School_Facility_Procurement_Public_Interest_Report.pdf">report from the Ohio auditor-general</a>, which revealed that in 2016 a Cincinnati charter school paid <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190121/are-charter-school-building-leases-fleecing-ohio-taxpayers">$867,000</a> to lease its facilities. This was far more than the going rate for comparable facilities in the area. The year before, a Cleveland charter was paying half a million above market rate, according to the same report.</p>
<p>Why would a charter school do this? Most states require charter schools to be <a href="https://www.publiccharters.org/about-charter-schools/charter-school-faq">nonprofit</a>. To make money, some of them have simply entered into contracts with <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2018/08/13/how-to-profit-from-your-non-profit-charter-school/#27ac70583354">separate for-profit companies</a> that they also own. These companies do make money off students. </p>
<p>In other words, some “nonprofit” charter schools take public money and pay their owners with it. When this happens, it creates an enormous incentive to overpay for facilities and supplies and underpay for things like teachers and student services.</p>
<h2>Millions of public dollars at stake</h2>
<p>The Cincinnati and Cleveland charters are prime examples of this perverse incentive structure. In both cases, the Ohio report showed, the charters were <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190121/are-charter-school-building-leases-fleecing-ohio-taxpayers">leasing property</a> from the subsidiaries of the charter school operators.</p>
<p>In fact, these and other similar subsidiaries were leasing facilities to several other charters in the state. These charters spent twice as much on rent as others in the state. </p>
<p>Thomas Kelley, a law professor specializing in nonprofit law, unearthed similar <a href="https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=4753&context=nclr">problems in North Carolina</a>, where charter school management companies obtain “ownership of valuable properties using public funds” and then charge the nonprofit charter schools rent far in excess of what is necessary to cover the cost of acquiring and maintaining the facilities. Because of the self-dealing, he questioned whether the charters actually qualify for nonprofit status under federal law. </p>
<p>The windfalls from these self-dealing practices can be sizable. In Arizona, Glenn Way, a former state legislator, has made about <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2018/07/11/american-leadership-academy-charter-school-founder-glenn-way-nets-millions/664210002/">$37 million</a> selling and leasing real estate to a chain of charter schools that he founded and, until recently, directed as chairman of the board, according to <a href="https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2018/08/08/leaders-mum-on-reasons-behind-nevada-charter-school-change/">local reporting</a>.</p>
<p>The laws around these issues are so permissive that even current state legislators can get into the game. An Arizona state senator, Eddie Farnsworth, who advocated for the state current <a href="https://asbcs.az.gov/board-staff-information/statutes-rules-policies">charter laws</a>, just sold his charter school chain for $56.9 million, netting himself <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2018/11/28/farnsworth-net-13-9-million-benjamin-franklin-charter-school-sale/2126183002/">$13.9 million in profits</a>, which is to say nothing of the lease payments the chain will still have to pay him going forward.</p>
<p>One outraged community in Ohio tried to address this self-dealing through the courts and quickly discovered a dead end. When Ohio closed some charters for poor <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED573584.pdf">performance</a>, the local charter school board wanted to reuse the leftover books and computers. </p>
<p>The charter company said they would have to <a href="http://www.legallyspeakingohio.com/2014/09/whats-on-their-minds-who-owns-charter-school-property-bought-with-public-dollars-hope-academy-broadway-campus-et-al-v-white-hat-management-llc-et-al/">pay for the items</a>, even though they had been purchased with taxpayer money. Following the letter of the law, the Ohio Supreme Court agreed, explaining that once public money gets handed over to charter school companies, everything they buy <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/taxpayers-paid-for-charter-school-property-but-they-dont-own-it/2015/09/16/a6181f5e-5c7b-11e5-9757-e49273f05f65_story.html?utm_term=.641f225706aa">belongs to them</a>, not the public.</p>
<p>This brutal truth prompted <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/10/ohio_passes_major_charter_school_reform_bill_pension_controversy_to_have_more_study.html">legislative reform in Ohio</a>, but just a few weeks ago, the National Alliance for Charter Schools was back in Ohio asking the state to <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2019/01/ohios-charter-school-students-need-more-facilities-funding-the-state-can-provide-it-chad-l-aldis-and-nina-rees-opinion.html">increase funding</a> for charter school facilities. </p>
<p>In our view as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=z-bISjgAAAAJ&hl=en">scholars</a> who focus on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eVP-tTgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education policy and law</a>, we believe Ohio needs to stick with reform and the rest of the nation needs to get up to speed on the facts.</p>
<h2>Stopping financial abuses</h2>
<p>Cleaning up these practices and closing loopholes is not about being for or against charter schools. It is about good and transparent government. Charter schools, after all, run on public money. </p>
<p>And right now, that money can be spent almost any way the industry sees fit. The time has come for oversight that ensures public money is meeting its public purpose – serving students, not private interests.</p>
<p>In our view, lawmakers should prohibit charter school owners and operators from leasing and purchasing property from their other companies. They should also require state officials to audit facility purchases and leases for irregularities.</p>
<p>Finally, we believe policymakers and lawmakers should enlist those inside charter schools for help. Give charter school teachers and employees whistleblower protections and a financial reward to alert the public to abuses. These steps will not end charter school debates, but they will fix problems that should not even warrant a debate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Baker has received funding from National Education Policy Center to explore the business operations of charter schools and from the Economic Policy Institute to study the effect of charter school expansion on host school districts.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Derek W. Black and Preston Green III do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Charter school operators have been capitalizing on lax laws that let them lease building space to themselves at above-market rates. A simple ban could end the practice, two education scholars argue.Derek W. Black, Professor of Law, University of South CarolinaBruce Baker, Professor of Education, Rutgers UniversityPreston Green III, Professor of Educational Leadership and Law, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1101492019-01-29T11:43:40Z2019-01-29T11:43:40ZCommunity schools score key victory in LA teachers strike<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256107/original/file-20190129-108351-1s9mi5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parents accompany their children to school on the first day back after a teachers' strike in Los Angeles.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Richard Vogel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/la-high-school-teacher-poses-for-union-poster-and-becomes-the-face-of-a-movement/ar-BBSmILI">most enduring images</a> of the 2019 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/us/la-teacher-strike-deal.html">Los Angeles teachers strike</a> will be of Roxana Dueñas.</p>
<p>Dueñas teaches history at Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles. It was her image that was used on a <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/la-high-school-teacher-poses-for-union-poster-and-becomes-the-face-of-a-movement/ar-BBSmILI">strike poster</a> that served as teachers’ call to arms: “Community Schools Build Democracy!”</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255077/original/file-20190123-100292-tpnfvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255077/original/file-20190123-100292-tpnfvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255077/original/file-20190123-100292-tpnfvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255077/original/file-20190123-100292-tpnfvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255077/original/file-20190123-100292-tpnfvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255077/original/file-20190123-100292-tpnfvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255077/original/file-20190123-100292-tpnfvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster from the recent Los Angeles teachers strike.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the end, this was a cry that did not go unheeded. The historic strike produced <a href="https://www.utla.net/sites/default/files/UTLA-LAUSD%202019-2022%20Tentative%20AgreementFINALV4012219.pdf">a tentative agreement</a> to transform 30 LA schools in high need areas into community schools, investing US$400,000 in each one over two years. </p>
<p>But just what are “community schools”? And how did they figure into the Los Angeles teachers strike?</p>
<p>I come at this subject from a unique vantage point. For the past decade, my colleagues and I at the University of California, Los Angeles have <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-lausd-sign-agreement-for-horace-mann-ucla-community-school">joined forces</a> with the district, teachers union and the community to establish the <a href="https://uclacs.org/">Robert F. Kennedy UCLA Community School</a> in Koreatown and the <a href="https://manncs.gseis.ucla.edu/">Mann UCLA Community School</a> in South LA. This collaboration is part of a <a href="https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/what-we-do/national-and-global-outreach/university-assisted-community-schools-network">larger national effort</a> to establish community schools in partnership with universities. This is tied deeply to the democratic traditions of collective problem-solving and equal educational opportunity.</p>
<p>Not everyone agrees that community schools are the best solution to the problems that beset education. For instance, some critics claim that they are “<a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-uncomfortable-reality-of-community-schools/">racially and economically segregated</a>.” And some research has found that they achieve “<a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2017/05/12/community-schools-are-expanding-but-are-they-working-new-study-shows-mixed-results/">mixed results</a>.” Overall, however, the evidence is promising. A thorough <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Community_Schools_Effective_REPORT.pdf">research review</a> found that well-designed community schools are effective in meeting the educational needs of low-achieving students in high-poverty schools.</p>
<h2>Control issues</h2>
<p>At its core, the strike, which concluded on Jan. 22, was about who should control public education. The teachers’ union advocated putting control in the hands of local communities in order to curb the influence of pro-charter school education philanthropists. This was in part a reaction to an initiative by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/eli-broad/#242b7e2c155d">Eli Broad</a> and others who <a href="http://documents.latimes.com/great-public-schools-now-initiative/">proposed</a> a plan to improve the Los Angeles Unified School District by attracting “edupreneurs” to launch 260 new charter schools that would capture 50 percent of the district’s “market share” by 2023. So far, charters are halfway to that goal, enrolling 25 percent of the district’s 621,414 students.</p>
<p>When Broad framed the future of public education in corporate terms – not democratic terms – it prompted widespread <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-charter-teachers-20151008-story.html">backlash</a>.</p>
<p>Former school board president <a href="http://laschoolreport.com/broad-charter-plan-comes-heavy-attack-lausd-board-meeting/">Jackie Goldberg declared</a>, “This is war!” Local foundation leaders <a href="http://www.weingartfnd.org/files/Open-letter-11-17-15.pdf">cautioned</a> that intended reforms “often fall short if they are done to communities rather than with communities.” </p>
<p>Working with communities to improve schooling – and thereby democracy – is a central premise of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/opinion/community-school-new-york.html">growing community schools movement</a>. A century-old idea <a href="https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/enduringappeal.pdf">that originated with social reformers Jane Addams and John Dewey</a>, <a href="http://www.communityschools.org/">community schools</a> are neighborhood hubs that bring together families, educators, government agencies and community groups and organizations to provide all the opportunities and services young people need to thrive. The movement has experienced a renaissance of sorts, tied to the broader “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/11/07/why-its-time-for-mayors-to-take-the-lead-to-improve-public-schools/?utm_term=.3e67cf70588b">new localism</a>.”</p>
<p>The Coalition for Community Schools <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2018/08/22/454977/building-community-schools-systems/">estimates</a> that there are more than 5,000 community schools nationwide. The organization <a href="http://www.communityschools.org/aboutschools/faqs.aspx#FAQ12">reports</a> that most existing community schools are public schools but that any school can be a community school, including charter, magnet and parochial schools. <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Community_Schools_Effective_BRIEF.pdf">Evidence</a> is mounting that community schools are particularly effective at addressing the many barriers to learning experienced by children living in poverty. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.oaklandinternational.org/">Oakland International School</a> is a community school focused on the challenges facing its newcomer students. As a result, the school partners with 21 agencies to provide health and legal services, mentoring for students in eight languages, social workers and other supports. <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Community_Schools_Effective_REPORT.pdf">As a result</a>, the college enrollment rate reached 68 percent by 2014, outperforming the state average for English learners.</p>
<h2>Support for community schools</h2>
<p>When LA teachers negotiated for more nurses and counselors, they were pushing for a pillar of the community schools movement – providing health and social services. Cities such as New York have embraced <a href="https://sites.google.com/mynycschool.org/newyorkcitycommunityschools/">community schools wholeheartedly</a>, supporting 247 community schools in 2018. <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2100.html">Early results</a> are promising, including higher attendance and graduation rates. In June 2017, LA Unified passed a <a href="http://laschoolboard.org/sites/default/files/06-13-17RegBdRes098CommunitySchoolsFinal6-14-17.pdf">resolution</a> to create a Community Schools Implementation Team charged with developing a rollout plan for an unspecified number of community schools. Three months later, the union released <a href="https://achieve.lausd.net/cms/lib/CA01000043/Centricity/domain/368/2014-2017%20lausd-utla%20proposals/UTLA%20Bargaining%20Proposal%20Support%20Our%20Schools%209-15-17.pdf">a bargaining proposal</a> to the district requesting $10 million to support 20 high-need schools in becoming community schools. The agreement reached 16 months later through the strike increased the proposal to $12 million and 30 schools. Details of the implementation plan are forthcoming. </p>
<p>The funding problem is <a href="http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/AssetManager/finance-paper.pdf">complex</a>. It involves attracting and coordinating a diverse set of public and private investments. For example, school-based health clinics may rely on federal Medicaid funding, while afterschool college tutoring may be privately funded. Ensuring private funds are used to strengthen the public system is a longstanding challenge. </p>
<p>LeBron James recently invested <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/08/whos_paying_for_lebron_james_n_1.html">an initial $2 million</a> to open a community school in Akron. He <a href="http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24194051/lebron-james-discusses-opening-public-school-akron-move-los-angeles-lakers-nba">told ESPN</a>, “It’s not a charter school, it’s not a private school, it’s a real-life school in my hometown.” Widely lauded, this investment may be signaling an <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/connecticut/articles/2018-10-22/billionaire-makes-major-investment-in-public-schools">increased willingness</a> to invest private dollars within neighborhood public schools given the controversy surrounding charter schools that surfaced in the strike.</p>
<p>Local Los Angeles philanthropists Melanie and Richard Lundquist are <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-lundquist-donation-20180118-story.html">investing $85 million</a> over 20 years in <a href="https://partnershipla.org/our-schools/">18 historically underserved schools</a>, including Roosevelt High School where Roxanna teaches. This adds about $650 per student per year. Though impressive, it makes only a dent in the amount needed to adequately fund public education. </p>
<p>To put that into perspective, Policy Analysis for California Education <a href="https://gettingdowntofacts.com/sites/default/files/2018-09/GDTFII%20Summary%20Report.pdf">estimates</a> that it would take a 38 percent increase in the current $12,204 spent per pupil to meet the goals set by the State Board of Education. That’s an estimated $4,686 more per student – which explains why the teachers were fighting for increased public school funding. </p>
<p>The striking teachers were also fighting to correct the imbalance of resources across charter and non-charter schools. One teacher who writes <a href="https://www.schooldatanerd.com/2019/01/15/why-i-strike/">a popular blog explained</a> that he was striking because competing with charters wasn’t a fair game given their lower class sizes. A teacher from a charter school reflected on how the strike has made her consider how <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-vaca-teacher-strike-20190123-story.html">charter school expansion is harming the city</a>.</p>
<p>While there are many excellent charter schools in Los Angeles Unified, as a group they serve fewer students living in poverty <a href="https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/EnrCharterSub.aspx?cds=1964733&agglevel=district&year=2017-18">72 percent in charters versus 86 percent in non-charter schools</a>. When families compete for seats in an educational marketplace, often the students facing the most challenges are <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/unitela/pages/4852/attachments/original/1532384985/Competition_Based_Reform_3_-_6.11.18_Welner_et_al..pdf?1532384985">left behind</a> because they are too expensive or considered disruptive. </p>
<p>The Mann UCLA Community School opened in 2017, building on the foundation of the historic Horace Mann Middle School. In 2000, Mann enrolled 1,737 students. By 2016, <a href="https://communityschooling.gseis.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Community-Schooling-Research-Brief-Winter-2018.pdf">enrollment had plummeted</a> to 330 students. Meanwhile, 37 charter schools had opened within a 2.5-mile radius of the school.</p>
<p>The students still enrolled at Mann are promising, resilient young people, but they face more challenges than those who left for charter schools. For example, <a href="https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/EnrCharterSub.aspx?cds=19647330135681&agglevel=school&year=2017-18">29 percent of the students at Mann</a> are enrolled in special education, versus <a href="https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/EnrCharterSub.aspx?cds=1964733&agglevel=district&year=2017-18">11 percent in charters</a>. New community school resources like summer programs, a college center and Saturday school are slowly attracting local families back to their neighborhood school. By September 2018, 444 students were enrolled and the percentage of students with 96 percent or higher attendance had improved 9 percent, from 59 percent to 68 percent, according to Los Angeles Unified School District data. This is still below the district average but a promising sign of improvement.</p>
<p>As more families choose the <a href="https://manncs.gseis.ucla.edu/">Mann UCLA Community School</a>, they are not just exercising the individual freedom Americans so deeply value. They are joining a community. As John Dewey put it in 1927, “Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the neighborly community.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Hunter Quartz works for the University of California and is the Director of the UCLA Center for Community Schooling. </span></em></p>The Los Angeles teachers strike wasn’t just about teachers – it was also about community schools, according to an education scholar who serves as director of the UCLA Center for Community Schooling.Karen Hunter Quartz, Researcher, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1080182018-12-03T11:37:21Z2018-12-03T11:37:21ZGeorge H.W. Bush laid the foundation for education reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248483/original/file-20181203-194932-1ri33m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President George H.W. Bush in 1990.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/washington-dc-usa-1990-president-george-718857319?src=M0-3E8Z8HAlcSliupLb0VQ-1-1">Mark Reinstein/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>George H.W. Bush fulfilled his desire – articulated late in his 1988 campaign for president – to be <a href="https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/negp/reports/negp30.pdf">“the education president</a>.” It just took three decades.</p>
<p>It’s true that Bush passed no education bills during his one term as president.</p>
<p>His next three successors, by contrast, all produced signature education legislation: <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/legislation/GOALS2000/TheAct/index.html">Goals 2000</a> for Bill Clinton, <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml">No Child Left Behind</a> for George W. Bush and both <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">Race to the Top</a> and the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa">Every Student Succeeds Act</a> for Barack Obama. All, however, followed a plan drawn up by George H.W. Bush. He was – in my view as an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=d-pest4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education historian</a> – the architect of sweeping change.</p>
<p>The cornerstone of the Bush education blueprint was an elite bipartisan consensus. Like his predecessor in the White House – Ronald Reagan – Bush was sympathetic to the free market. But unlike Reagan, Bush was a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/taxanalysts/2014/05/16/george-h-w-bushs-profile-in-pragmatism/#3516f4181a3d">pragmatist</a>, and as vice president had watched Reagan fail in his push for tuition vouchers. But Bush was also a consummate Washington insider, less intent on dismantling government than on improving it. In the long wake of the alarmist <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html">A Nation at Risk</a> report, which suggested that American students were falling behind their international peers, Bush offered a new vision for federal involvement in education. Rather than choosing between the unregulated market and the heavy hand of government to fix schools, Bush offered a third way, <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?22949-1/america-2000-education-initiatives">making the case</a> that entrepreneurial activity in education should be encouraged and carefully monitored by the state. That vision, which shaped an entire generation of education reformers, remains the foundation of an enduring consensus among liberals and conservatives alike.</p>
<h2>Federal government as catalyst</h2>
<p>Beyond establishing a vision, Bush threw his energies into school reform projects large and small. In keeping with his belief that the federal government could <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PPP-1991-book1/html/PPP-1991-book1-doc-pg395-2.htm">“serve as a catalyst”</a> in promoting change, he was an early advocate for charter schools, which he successfully <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED327985.pdf">framed</a> as a bipartisan marriage of entrepreneurism and government, and which he pitched not as devices of the free market, but as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/28/opinion/school-choice-without-harm.html">an experimentation</a> against inequality. Through the <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/npo-spotlight/new-american-schools">New American Schools Development Corporation</a>, for instance, Bush funded the Community Learning Centers of Minnesota project – the first endeavor <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED371513.pdf">“based on the charter school concept, a variation of the school choice approach</a>.” In so doing, he created a model that would be replicated a thousand times over.</p>
<p>Perhaps most significantly, Bush laid the foundation for <a href="https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/negp/reports/negp30.pdf">standards-based accountability</a>. Before he took office, the federal government had little involvement in the governance of public schools. President Lyndon Johnson had increased Washington’s reach through the <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/the-nations-main-k-12-law-a-timeline.html">Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965</a>, which channeled vast new sums to schools. But Johnson and his successors – including Jimmy Carter, who <a href="https://education.laws.com/department-of-education">elevated</a> the Department of Education to the Cabinet – had done little to position the federal government as a kind of executive suite in public education. Bush changed that, and sought to do so by developing top-down accountability through curricular standards and aligned tests.</p>
<p>Less than a year after taking office, the Bush administration worked with the National Governors’ Association to organize the <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/09/24/05summit.h34.html">1989 Charlottesville education summit</a> – a meeting at which then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton distinguished himself as an ally. A few short months later, in his <a href="https://www.infoplease.com/homework-help/us-documents/state-union-address-george-hw-bush-january-31-1990">1990 State of the Union address</a>, Bush proposed his <a href="http://www.capenet.org/pdf/Outlook171.pdf">America 2000</a> legislation, which called for standardized tests that would “tell parents and educators, politicians, and employers just how well our schools are doing.”</p>
<h2>Enduring influence</h2>
<p>At the time he was defeated in his bid for reelection, Bush had little to show for his plans. The charter sector in the early 1990s remained minuscule. Congress sank America 2000 shortly after it was proposed.</p>
<p>Over time, however, Bush’s grand design was gradually realized. Rechristening Bush’s failed America 2000 legislation as Goals 2000, Bill Clinton gave incentives to states to create curricular standards and aligned tests, and he doled out millions of dollars in grants to charter school developers. George W. Bush advanced his father’s work through No Child Left Behind, as well as through strong support for the charter sector, which doubled in size under his administration. Barack Obama offered continued support to the charter sector, while also ensuring the future of accountability testing through <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn">Every Student Succeeds Act</a>. In short, the Bush paradigm has had remarkable endurance across time and across different administrations.</p>
<p>This is not to say that federal policy has had a positive effect on schools over the past quarter-century. No Child Left Behind is today viewed by policy experts, educators and even many of its original backers as a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pam.21978">failure</a>. And charter schools, despite receiving generally positive press, have produced <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112340">mixed results</a> while largely <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/08/24/we-must-diversify-charter-school-options.html">failing to produce real innovation</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the endurance of these efforts reveals Bush’s particular genius for working within complex democratic bureaucracies to build lasting power. The Department of Education, once a sleepy backwater, today exercises tremendous influence. And in wielding that influence, Bush’s successors – both Republicans and Democrats – have also advanced his administrative agenda. Phrases like “standards and accountability” and “school choice,” once deployed only by policy wonks, are now common terms in the national education dialogue.</p>
<p>George H.W. Bush’s ideas persisted well after he left office. That’s because they were rooted in compromise between elites on both sides of the aisle and because they were patiently developed through bureaucratic institutions and the law. For good or ill, it seems, true power lies not in the issuance of ideological proclamations or executive orders – it lies in statecraft. Leaders, after all, may come and go. But their policies can continue to shape the world long after they leave office.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Schneider does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though his education initiative staggered while he was in office, the late former President George H.W. Bush had an influence that continues to shape education policy, an education historian says.Jack Schneider, Assistant Professor of Education, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/953952018-04-24T10:52:13Z2018-04-24T10:52:13ZStates are favoring school choice at a steep cost to public education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216023/original/file-20180423-94157-bxe6lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Colorado teachers rally outside the state Capitol April 16 to demand more funding for schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Teacher-Protest-Colorado/20bd909fdad647d58518aa1cd816f6e9/22/0">Colleen Slevin/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Teacher strikes are generating a healthy focus on how far public education funding has <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-punishing-decade-for-school-funding">fallen</a> over the past decade. The full explanation, however, goes beyond basic funding cuts. It involves <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3058266">systematic advantages</a> in terms of funding, students and teachers for charter schools and voucher programs as compared to traditional public schools. Increasing public teacher salaries may end the current protests, but speaking as an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eVP-tTgAAAAJ&hl=en">expert in education law and policy</a>, I believe it won’t touch the new normal in which public education is no longer many states’ first priority. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3058266">forthcoming research</a> shows that, from funding and management practices to teacher and student policies, states are giving charter schools and private schools a <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/article/20150909/NEWS/309099728">better deal</a> than public schools. These better deals have fueled enormous growth in <a href="https://www.publiccharters.org/sites/default/files/documents/2018-03/FINAL%20Estimated%20Public%20Charter%20School%20Enrollment%2C%202017-18.pdf">charter schools</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/03/07/518352548/trump-s-favorite-school-choice-program-allows-wealthy-donors-to-turn-a-profit">voucher programs</a> that is now nearly impossible to unwind. </p>
<p>The most basic shift occurred between 2008 and 2012. Florida and North Carolina illustrate the nationwide trend. Each cut public education funding by <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxtYmwryVI00cVZueUhhYlBsdE0/view">20 percent</a> or more in three years. During the same period, North Carolina lifted its <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article178022436.html">cap</a> on new charter schools and quickly <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2745915">doubled</a> its charter school spending. Florida similarly changed the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/18/florida-moves-toward-school-voucher-expansion-but-with-no-accountability/?utm_term=.e722a1d5400b">rules</a> for its voucher program and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3058266">quadrupled</a> its size. </p>
<h2>Favorable funding practices</h2>
<p>States also passed laws to offer charters and private schools more money for each student they took. Florida <a href="http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/15230/urlt/FTC_Sept_2017_1.pdf">increased</a> the value of each voucher by roughly US$2,000. Nevada went even further, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/02/can-a-universal-voucher-program-succeed/515436/">passing</a> legislation that would convert every single public education dollar into a voucher dollar. While the state Supreme Court later declared the program unconstitutional, it has not stopped other states like <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2017/04/07/arizona-gov-doug-ducey-signs-school-voucher-expansion/100159192/">Arizona</a> from pursuing similar programs. </p>
<p>Several states also began lifting income <a href="https://indianapublicmedia.org/stateimpact/2016/08/19/years-indianas-voucher-program-functions-differently/">eligibility limits</a>. Previously, states had provided vouchers only for low-income students. But new voucher programs made them available to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/02/can-a-universal-voucher-program-succeed/515436/">wealthy students</a> as well, even those who already had access to excellent public schools. </p>
<p>Charter schools benefited from similar advantages in some states. Ohio and New Jersey funneled charter school funding through school districts, but the states’ antiquated funding formulas and charter reimbursement rates force districts to send charter schools <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3058266">more per pupil</a> than they receive from the state. </p>
<p>Pennsylvania has a similar <a href="http://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Pages/Charter-School-Funding.aspx">scheme</a>, but it has proven so lopsided that it expanded deficits in <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/exploring-the-consequences-of-charter-school-expansion-in-u-s-cities/">Philadelphia</a> and nearly bankrupted the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/education/pennsylvania-schools-funding-fight-pits-district-against-charter.html">Chester School District</a>. Chester was paying the local charter school roughly <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150823_Battle_brews_over_charter_school_compensation_for_special_education_students.html">$40,000 per special education student</a>, including for those students with relatively low-cost needs. Arizona took a simpler route. It <a href="https://ade.az.gov/schoolfinance/faqs/Funding/Funding%20of%20Districts%20vs%20Charters.pdf">shielded charter schools</a> from the budget cuts it was imposing on traditional public schools.</p>
<h2>Less oversight</h2>
<p>Once they receive the money, charter schools and private schools receiving vouchers can spend it almost any way they want. Private schools <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/11/15/there-is-no-oversight-private-school-vouchers-can.html">operate</a> just as they had before. And charter schools – though technically public schools – are exempt from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/10/05/education-department-slammed-for-charter-school-oversight-by-its-own-watchdog-office/?utm_term=.7dcd050dd82c">typical financial oversight</a>. </p>
<p>Laws require public schools to award contracts through a transparent process and prohibit public schools from entering contracts that pose conflicts of interest. Charters can award contracts to almost <a href="https://educationlaw.org/images/annual-conference/2017/2017Papers/J4-2-Green.pdf">anyone they like</a> – and on any terms they like. This includes awarding contracts to companies that have close financial ties with the charter. A person can start a purportedly nonprofit charter school and then have that charter purchase all of its services and supplies from a company owned by that same person. As a result, the person can turn a <a href="http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol93/iss6/4/">profit</a> on staffing, facilities, technology and supplies. <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article178438001.html">National Heritage Academies</a> runs this exact type of business model in North Carolina and continues to grow its campuses.</p>
<p>The same activity could constitute fraud or criminality in a public school. Yet, state law permits it for charters. As Thomas Kelley’s <a href="http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol93/iss6/4/">analysis</a> reveals, many of the charter schools that state law calls nonprofits would not qualify for that same label under federal law. </p>
<h2>No checks on profiteering</h2>
<p>Even well-meaning charter schools have been unable to stop this profit-taking. The Ohio Supreme Court, for instance, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/09/16/ohio-supreme-court-sides-with-for-profit-company-over-charter-schools/?utm_term=.8e5a67f29123">found</a> that state law dictates that everything a private charter school company purchases with public dollars – from desks to computers – belongs to the private company, not the public. The same is true of buildings that charter schools lease. Charter school operators reap their largest profits through unreasonably high <a href="http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol93/iss6/4/">lease payments</a> on buildings that the public will never own.</p>
<p>States also allow private schools and charters to treat students differently. While public schools must provide disadvantaged students with a host of special services, private schools take vouchers with almost no strings attached. And they are <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/12/520111511/the-promise-and-peril-of-school-vouchers">increasingly</a> taking high-achieving middle-income and nondisabled students who cost less to educate and typically do not demand specialized services.</p>
<p>Charter schools’ advantages come in their ability to recruit students and cap enrollment. Public schools must serve everyone in their community. The clearest proof that charters don’t is in the data. For instance, Newark charter schools enroll less than half the percentage of <a href="http://www.saveourschoolsnj.org/save/corefiles/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/NJ-Charter-School-Report_10.29.2014.pdf">special education students and English language learners</a> as the Newark public schools. Newark charters also enroll significantly fewer low-income students. In North Carolina, charter schools are increasingly enrolling white students, while public schools increasingly <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w21078.pdf">enroll</a> students of color. In Minneapolis, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/lawsuit-claims-minnesota-fails-to-educate-poor-minority-students-in-mpls-st-paul/340843751/">80 percent of charters</a> are racially isolated by race, socioeconomic status or both. </p>
<p>The most obvious advantage, however, is with teachers. Most <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3058266">states exempt</a> charter schools from teacher certification requirements. Half exempt charters from complying with high-stakes teacher evaluation systems. More than three-quarters exempt charters from the teacher salary and collective bargaining rules. In short, states permit charters to hire teachers that would be deemed unqualified in a public school and pay them less. </p>
<h2>The need for a structural shift</h2>
<p>The current debate over school funding must move beyond teacher salaries and whether the <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/reader-center/us-public-schools-conditions.html?utm_campaign=newsletter_subscription&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nuzzel">books in public schools are tattered</a>. Those conversations ignore the systematic policies that disadvantage public schools. Increasing public school teachers’ salaries alone won’t fix the problem. The public school teaching force <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/02/14/why-americas-teacher-shortage-is-going-to-get-worse/">has already shrunk</a>. Class sizes have <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/07/too-many-kids/397451/">already risen</a>. And the rules that advantage charter and private schools remain firmly in place. </p>
<p>Long-term solutions require a reexamination of these preferences. As a state constitutional matter, the law requires that states make public education their first priority. It is not enough to make education one of several competing priorities. And as a practical matter, states cannot continue to ask public schools to work with whatever is left over and then criticize them for doing a poor job. This cycle creates a circular justification for dismantling public education when states should be repairing it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95395/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Derek W. Black does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Traditional public schools suffer as states create favorable funding schemes for charter schools and school vouchers.Derek W. Black, Professor of Law, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932432018-03-12T17:51:30Z2018-03-12T17:51:30ZDeVos and the limits of the education reform movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209947/original/file-20180312-30979-1xvip4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Betsy DeVos, shaking hands at a school choice rally shortly before she became education secretary in 2017</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/DeVos-School-Choice/556a1f9c988d423db1a57a34fa67c3f9/2/0">AP Photo/Maria Danilova</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Betsy DeVos
exposed the education reform movement’s pitfalls in her highest-profile media appearance to date.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump’s education secretary got the job based on her years of advocacy for expanding “school choice,” especially in <a href="https://www.crpe.org/thelens/devos-detroit-choice">Michigan</a>, her home state. Yet she stumbled when Lesley Stahl asked her in a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/60-minutes/about-us/">widely watched</a> CBS “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/secretary-of-education-betsy-devos-on-guns-school-choice-and-why-people-dont-like-her/">60 Minutes</a>” interview to assess the track record for those efforts.</p>
<p>“I don’t know. Overall, I – I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better,” DeVos stammered.</p>
<p>It’s not just Michigan or Midwestern conservatives. Policymakers and philanthropists across the ideological spectrum and the nation have teamed up to reform public education for decades, only to find that their bold projects have fallen short. Regardless of the evidence, however, top-down reform remains the standard among politicians and big donors.</p>
<p>As an educational policy scholar, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=d-pest4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I have identified</a> a few reasons why school reform efforts so persistently get lackluster results, as well as why enthusiasm for reform hasn’t waned. Despite its <a href="http://www.pbs.org/makingschoolswork/hyc/bor/timeline.html">long-term failure</a>, large-scale education reform maintains consistent bipartisan support and is backed by roughly <a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/got-dough-how-billionaires-rule-our-schools">US$4 billion a year</a> in philanthropic funding derived from <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/04/11/plutocracy-bill-gates-philanthropy-washington-state/">some of the nation’s biggest fortunes</a>. </p>
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<h2>Shiny objectives</h2>
<p>DeVos may be a <a href="http://time.com/5053007/betsy-devos-education-secretary-2017-controversies/">uniquely polarizing figure</a>, but she is hardly the first federal leader to champion school reform. </p>
<p>Ever since 1983, when the Reagan administration published its “<a href="https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html">A Nation at Risk</a>” report bemoaning the quality of American public education, politicians have rallied public support for plans to overhaul the nation’s education system. Over the past quarter century, leaders from both parties have backed the creation of <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19492">curricular standards</a> and <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html">high-stakes standardized tests</a>. And they have pushed <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-meyerson-billionaire-charters-20170526-story.html">privately operated charter schools as a replacement for traditional public schools</a>, along with vouchers and other subsidies to defray the cost of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-marksjarvis-529plans/column-using-529-funds-to-pay-for-private-school-check-new-rules-idUSKBN1FD384">private school tuition</a>.</p>
<p>All of these large-scale school reform efforts, whether pushed by the federal government or backed by billionaire philanthropists including the families of Facebook co-founder <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/10/16/what-did-zuckerbergs-100-million-buy-newark-bit-progress/769536001/">Mark Zuckerberg</a>, Microsoft co-founder <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/the-plot-against-public-education-111630">Bill Gates</a>, <a href="http://laschoolreport.com/eli-broad-giant-of-education-philanthropy-is-retiring/">homebuilder and insurance mogul Eli Broad</a>, <a href="http://cashinginonkids.org/brought-to-you-by-wal-mart-how-the-walton-family-foundations-ideological-pursuit-is-damaging-charter-schooling/">late Walmart founder Sam Walton</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-education/2016/12/a-look-at-betsy-devos-charitable-giving-217695">DeVos herself</a> have encountered setbacks.</p>
<p>Still, the larger ethos of reform hasn’t changed. And none of the leaders of this effort, including DeVos, appear to be wavering in their efforts, even when <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/politics/betsy-devos-60-minutes/index.html">challenged with evidence</a>, as happened during her cringe-inducing “60 Minutes” interview.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Former PBS NewsHour education correspondent John Merrow sums up his book ‘Addicted to Reform,’ which describes the pitfalls of the K-12 reform movement.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A cycle of failure</h2>
<p>From George W. Bush’s <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml">No Child Left Behind</a> to Barack Obama’s <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">Race to the Top</a> and the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=ft">Every Student Succeeds Act</a> that was signed into law in 2015, the federal government has taken a highly interventionist approach to education policy.</p>
<p>But it has routinely failed to produce promised results. Today, educators, scholars and policymakers now almost universally regard No Child Left Behind as <a href="https://blog.ed.gov/2015/12/secretary-duncan-finally-a-fix-to-no-child-left-behind/">a washout</a>. And many critiques of Obama-era reform efforts have been equally <a href="https://www.alternet.org/education/dismal-failure-arne-duncans-race-top-program">blistering</a>. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the core approach to federal education policy has not markedly changed.</p>
<p>The chief reason that all this activity has produced so little change, in my view, is that the movement’s populist politics encourage reformers to make promises beyond what they can reasonably expect to deliver. The result, then, is a cycle of searing critique, sweeping proposal, disappointment and new proposal. The particulars of each recipe may differ, but the overall approach is always the same.</p>
<h2>Cookie cutters</h2>
<p>Beyond this dysfunctional cycle, the other big reason the school reform movement has consistently come up short has to do with an approach that is both too narrow and too generic.</p>
<p>Ever since 1966, when Johns Hopkins University sociologist <a href="http://pages.jh.edu/jhumag/0400web/18.html">James S. Coleman</a> determined in his government-commissioned report that low-income children of color benefit from learning in integrated settings, most education researchers have agreed that economic inequality and social injustice are among the most powerful drivers of educational achievement gaps. What students achieve in a school, in other words, reflects their living conditions outside its walls.</p>
<p>Yet rather than addressing the daunting issues like persistent poverty that shape children’s lives and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528798/">interfere with their learning</a>, education reformers have largely embraced a management consultant approach. That is, they seek systems-oriented solutions that can be assessed through bottom-line indicators. This has been particularly true in the case of conservatives like DeVos, who even in her stand against the public education “system,” has proposed a new kind of system – <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/betsy-devos-michigan-school-experiment-232399">school choice</a> – as a solution.</p>
<p>This approach fails to address the core problems shaping student achievement at a time when researchers like <a href="https://cepa.stanford.edu/sean-reardon">Sean Reardon</a> at Stanford University find that <a href="https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/widening-academic-achievement-gap-between-rich-and-poor-new-evidence-and-possible">income levels are more correlated with academic achievement</a> than ever and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-rich-are-the-rich-if-only-you-knew-89682">gap between rich students and less affluent kids</a> is growing.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Sean Reardon, a Stanford University professor, discusses the gap between how low-income and rich students perform academically.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, reformers of all stripes have tried to enact change at the largest possible scale. To work everywhere, however, education reforms must be suitable for all schools, regardless of their particular circumstances. </p>
<p>This cookie-cutter approach ignores educational research. Scholars consistently find that schools don’t work that way. I believe, as others do, that successful schools are thriving <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2012/02/06/a-new-model-schools-as-ecosystems/">ecosystems</a> adapted to local circumstances. One-size-fits-all reform programs simply can’t have a deep impact in all schools and in every community.</p>
<h2>Entrepreneurial outsiders</h2>
<p>Perhaps this flawed approach to education reform has survived year after year of disappointing results because policy leaders, donors and politicians tend not to challenge each other on the premise that the ideal of school reform requires a sweeping overhaul – even though they may disagree about the best route. DeVos may be criticized for her dogmatic demeanor, but her approach is fairly mainstream in <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/devos-education-nominees-code-words-for-creationism-offshoot-raise-concerns">most regards</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, many leading reformers generally subscribe to the ethos of <a href="http://www.thomastoch.com/wp/2011/education-entrepreneurs-on-the-potomac/">educational entrepreneurism</a>. They consider visionary leadership as essential, even when leaders have <a href="https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1706/1456">scant relevant professional experience</a>. That was the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2017-02-16/how-betsy-devos-compares-to-former-education-secretaries">case with DeVos</a> before she became education secretary. As outsiders operating within a complex system, however, reformers often fail take the messy real-world experiences of U.S. schools into account. </p>
<p>Finally, the reformers see <a href="https://thinkgrowth.org/100-leadership-entrepreneurship-quotes-e2164dd42f77">failure as an acceptable part of the entrepreneurial process</a>. Rather than second-guess their approach when their plans come up short, they may just believe that they placed the wrong bet. As a result, the constant blare of pitches and promises continues. And it’s possible that none of them will ever measure up, no matter the evidence.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article incorporates elements of a story published on March 8, 2018, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a strategic partner of The Conversation US and provides funding for The Conversation internationally.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Schneider's current work, on how school quality is conceptualized and quantified, has been supported by the Spencer Foundation and the Massachusetts State Legislature. He is the director of research for the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment, which is working to build an alternate model for educational measurement and accountability.</span></em></p>The cycle of overpromising and disappointment has left donors, politicians and policymakers of all stripes looking to improve K-12 public schooling with an underwhelming track record.Jack Schneider, Assistant Professor of Education, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.