Back

Next

Link to: Table of Contents
Link to: December 2000 Issue pdf. file format (best for printing)

MONTHLY LETTER MAILBOX: Register to receive the Monthly Letter by mail, send us your comments, questions or compliments about this or any other issue of the Monthly Letter, or let us know what's happening in your community and state for coverage in future Monthly Letters. We welcome your input!

CER Home Page CER Monthly Letter E-Mail CER CER Publications

Parents for Standards W                          hat happens when the pub-
                         lic’s desire for higher stan-
                         dards and accountable
schools clashes with the establishment’s
fear of what standards might do?  Well,
take a look at Virginia for a case study on the consequences of state standards.
It’s hard to believe that after 6 years in
existence, when 22 percent of schools
have already met or exceeded tougher
standards (up from only 7 percent last
year) and the state’s progress has been
copied and used beyond its borders,
that parents would have to mobilize to keep the pres-
sure on their
legislature and
to maintain
high standards
for their
children.       But thankful-
ly, parents are
doing just that.
Amidst the cry
and chaos creat-
ed by school
officials and
PTA leaders in
opposition to the State’s Standards of Learning
(SOLs), and the continual drum beat to
water down the high standards, a group
of parents fearing that schools would
revert to low expectations decided to
take on the establishment. They estab-
lished PASS-SOL (Parents and Students
Supporting SOLs) to advocate high aca-
demic standards and defend the state’s
efforts to bring them about. Joined by
Fairfax County school board member
Mychele Brickner — who as a parent is
grateful for the SOLs — the group has
spoken out at hearings held around the
state, organized letter campaigns to the
press and to state legislators, held public
forums of their own, and become the
authoritative voice for parents defend-
ing high academic standards. The
“death of the standards” movement has
been wildly exaggerated by defenders of
the status quo, and this parent-based
organization shows why.  Cory Booker W                          e’ve been hearing a lot
                         about someone lately that
                         spends almost all his waking
moments … and resources … on help-
ing find solutions for impoverished
minority citizens in Newark, NJ. Cory
Booker is a man who, as the NY Times
put it “could aim to own the world or
save it.” As an all-American high school
football player, Stanford graduate and
Rhodes scholar, he had the opportunity
to make a profit on Wall Street, but
instead chose to take on his party’s
establishment in a successful run for
Newark City Council. And there, he
has fought for his constituents not only
for traditional public services but also
by insisting on support for educational
vouchers. As Booker puts it, “Only if we return power to the
parents can we find a way
to fix the system.” His
work’s been recognized on
the front page of the NY
Times, and he’s also a part
of a growing, critical net-
work called the Black
Alliance for Educational
Opportunities (BAEO),
which is growing chapters
of people of color in com-
munities nationwide that
are devoted to real school
reform and know that the only way for
real equity is for choice to be available
to all children, especially the poor.       Booker and BAEO are blazing new
trails and demonstrating that the con-
stituencies that most need good schools will not be silenced until they are avail-
able in plentiful supply to all. And
options or choices need to be created
today to make that happen.  The Pass-SOL.org website Cory Booker and friends. 5 R Reformers…