VOICE OF THE PEOPLE: CHARTER SCHOOLS
By Tom Brademas
South Bend Tribune, South Bend, IN, December 6, 1999

        The article in the Nov. 17 issues of The Tribune by Delores Patterson, "Local educators disagree with evaluation," flies in the face of the facts. The Tribune editorial of March 1 said, "The South Bend Community School Corp. has failed." The survey that was prepared at the request of the city of South Bend found that only 32 percent of the citizens responding felt children could get a good education in the South Bend school system.

        This concern for quality education for our children is not unique to our community or our state. More than 35 states in the nation have adopted charter school legislation to address this problem. Results for those charter schools are very positive.

        Since Indiana is only one of the handful of states that have not authorized charter schools, efforts have been made for the last five legislative sessions to secure authorization for charter schools.

        It was difficult to understand when the Indiana House of Representatives approved charter school legislation by a bi-partisan vote of 67-31, why the measure didn't pass. Unfortunately, prior to the final vote on this legislation, the AFL/CIO and the Indiana Federation of Teachers accused Senate Bill 468 of establishing "two classes of teachers ­ those with statutory rights and those without those rights." Now we find Dick Beeching, director of the National Education Association in South Bend, suggesting charter schools aren't held accountable. Quite the contrary, the whole foundation for a charter school is to secure accountability where we seldom have it in the public school system today.

Tom Brademas
Mishawaka

Link to: Bill 468

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