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CER Commentary
Education Reform begins at dinner table
By Jeanne Allen
The Daily Oklahoman, June 26, 2001
The regrettable defeat of President Bush's modest school choice proposal -- limited to a small number of poor children whose schools fail somewhere down the line -- has been chalked up by some as an indication of waning public support.
In reality, issues like school choice are "bottom-up" ideas. Revolutions begin not in Washington but at the dinner table, far below the radar of national and state politics. Washington is, after all, the seat of power of the major education groups and unions. People in both parties bow when they call.
Real people, in their homes and communities, grapple with challenges facing their children. The notion of giving parents real control over their children's education is taking hold.
Consider the efforts of a group of parents in Laramie, Wyo., far from where most people would assume education's ills lurk. Nancy and Trey Hamilton were shocked to find in their first child's early years that the teaching of reading wasn't treated like a science and math was a feel good exercise rather than a discipline. They weren't the only ones who noticed the shortcomings of neighborhood public schools. They began crafting proposals to help the schools -- they thought to adopt better programs.
Something unexpected happened; they were turned away, told to go home, called busybodies, and realized that parental involvement of substance wasn't wanted. In reaction, their determination led to the development of a new kind of public school that offered parents choices to make decisions themselves. Today, they are pursuing the creation of a local charter school.
They are not unlike the parents in Washington, D.C., or dozens of other cities who, with even worse schools, have taken to the streets to preserve some limited choices they have or crusade for new ones.
At a forum on school choice held by New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, a young Latino woman was goaded up to the microphone by her grandmother to ask the question of the prestigious panel, "Where do I go for these choices?" When I approached her to offer some ideas on how to get involved, she asked me again how she could get those choices presumably for her child -- now.
Now. That's a word that comes all too infrequently from the education establishment. The prevailing "let's work together to fix the public school system" mantra, to the exclusion of all other reform, is a defense mechanism that challenges the notion that parents should be allowed to move kids..
It's a notion that is unfathomable to O'kema Lewis, who tried unsuccessfully for several years to improve the Chicago system for her child -- from the inside. After volunteering eagerly for years, she took to writing the mayor and everyone else she could find, attended every school board meeting, and made "fervent attempts to address concerns that permeate the school system in this city everyday" -- for her child and thousands like him. Having seen funds misplaced, programs not satisfied and standards lacking, she wanted to see more charter schools started, but the political issues are too cumbersome for one parent to take on. She can't find a scholarship either to go to a private school, so she's pulled her son home to school him, despite the expense that caused her phone to be turned off.
In Florida, parents still have to be "fortunate" enough to be in a school that is so bad it has failed twice in a four year period before they can use money the state allocates for their child's education to go to a different school.
These are but a few examples of the efforts, awareness and strength that build daily in communities nationwide. Parents are frustrated. They are, as in their own teen years, questioning authority.
The good news is that the more pressure that charter schools and targeted voucher programs bring to bear on business as usual, the more we see otherwise complacent school officials summoning up a commitment to change. Issues now being embraced widely by the mainstream regarding standards, tests, teacher quality, school size and more would never have the grasp on schools they now have had pressures from the threat of various choice programs not occurred.
This ripple effect of programs that challenge the captive clientele in public schools may have as much success in reforming schools as the reforms themselves. When Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland, Calif., fought for his proposed residential charter school the school board balked. He finally won approval upon appeal to the state board of education. While the bureaucracy screamed, he was flooded by calls and letters from parents wanting to know where they could sign up. After a much-publicized campaign, it's unlikely the people of Oakland will be quiet any longer.
Education reform is the proverbial "build it and they will come" phenomenon. Once people know what choices are possible, they want to help make them available. It's no more ideological than raising a family. Perhaps that's why some fight so hard to prevent even a balanced discussion.
Whether vouchers or other reforms rise or fall in Washington won't affect the passions and demands of reformist parents -- like the Newark, N.J. parent who told me: "Until parents have the power, real improvement isn't possible."
Sincerely,
Jeanne Allen
President
The Center for Education Reform
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The Center for Education Reform [CER] is a national, independent, non-profit advocacy organization providing support and guidance to individuals, community and civic groups, policymakers and others who are working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools. For additional information on education reform please call CER at (202) 822-9000.