Vol. 4, No. 12
March 26, 2002

CHARTERS:

*NEW YORK: Charter school opponents who like to claim that charters "cream" the best students from government schools have had more wind taken out of their leaky sails. A new report from SUNY's Charter Schools Institute finds that charter schools in New York are havens for urban children most at-risk of academic failure. "Charter Schools: A New Choice in Public Education" reports that children at SUNY-authorized charters showed up reading at the 31st national percentile and doing math at the 30th percentile. The learning gaps are worse for older children, suggesting the longer they stay in their failing district-run schools the worse off they become. Not surprisingly, parents are practically knocking down the doors to get their children out of the failing schools and into charter schools. Every State University-authorized charter school has a waiting list and several have waiting lists that equal or exceed enrollment. Charters are also making a difference. In charter-laden Buffalo, school district officials are talking about converting existing schools to charter status and finding other ways to replicate charter offerings. The report is available at www.newyorkcharters.org

*INDIANA: Some parents cheered and others cried as they left an Indianapolis library Friday morning after the first 72 students of the new 21st Century Charter School were chosen by lottery. Indiana's first 13 charter schools will open this fall, and will hopefully have funding, thanks to the diligent efforts of Project E! and the law's original sponsor, Senator Teresa Lubbers. Indiana policymakers tried for nearly 7 years to get a law, and each year they abandoned any proposal that would not allow for real flexibility and autonomy. Because of persistence, skillful negotiations and grassroots support, Indiana last summer enacted what is now the nation's sixth strongest charter law. That's good news to the thousands of parents already standing in line (so to speak) for the new charters, some of which were approved by Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson.

*ELSEWHERE: That opportunity isn't yet a reality in states like Maryland and Tennessee, which, while lawmakers have passed bills at various stages, do not contain the substantive provisions that would allow a healthy, diverse crop of schools to come into existence. But the allure of federal funds coupled with some local pressure seems to be driving policymakers to act on weaker bills. For more information on both these states, log onto www.edreform.com/charter_schools/map.htm.

* PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia charter leaders will soon meet with members of the city's School Reform Commission, (SRC) which earlier this month declared a pox on all their houses by suggesting that 39 charter schools had caused the financial woes, in part, that the city now faces. Rather than embrace the factors that make charters attract many inner city parents - size, accountability, personalization - the SRC showed a lack of understanding about its role but, thankfully, is going to take time to learn first hand more about the what and why of charter schools.

* PHILLY REVISITED: A scathing report from the Philadelphia Inquirer about the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 98 has emerged amidst the School Reform Commission's attempts to cut unnecessary spending. The article alleges that since 1998 this union has coerced untold dollars from the school district, in many cases to do, literally, nothing. According to the article, "Philadelphia's electrician union has used threats, intimidation and vandalism in a long-running effort to press its wage and hiring demands on the city's cash-strapped school district." The union forced its workers onto jobs in which they weren't needed, charged the district a much higher hourly rate than it applied to private contracts, and broke the law to get its way. And what did school officials do to stop the abuses? In the late '90s they went to then-Mayor (now Gubernatorial candidate) Ed Rendell, who promptly did -- nothing. Why? Because Local 98's boss, John J. Dougherty, is a power-broker in the city, described by the Inquirer as "the most influential figure in the city's labor movement," running a 3,500 member union that many credit with providing Mayor John Street's margin of victory in the 1999 mayoral election. Dougherty is also chairman of the city's Redevelopment Authority and Treasurer of the city's Democratic Party. We'd suspect that there are plenty more abuses like this one at play in school affairs. Advice to the SRC: Follow the Money.

* PHILLY II: By the time the day is over, Edison Schools, Inc. and the financial firm KPMG may have landed management contracts running aspects of the school district, which would be an overdue but long-anticipated move by the school system's new governance board, the School Reform Commission.

* CHOICE: Urban education has improved dramatically because of school choice, says a Milwaukee, WI school board member whose term has spanned the last 5 years. Says John Gardner in a report entitled "How School Choice Helps Milwaukee Public Schools," "The evidence is increasingly clear that MPS students have made significant academic gains between 1997 and 2001, the period of the most rapid expansion of school choice." Gardner also addresses how the system is responding, raising standards and creating more meaningful options for children due to the pressure that the program brought to bear. Finally, in light of Philadelphia's woes, it's important to note that Gardner's report highlights the billions of dollars spent with no results from 1977 to 1989, money that did not improve things a bit. It was only after the city began to implement choice that achievement and efficiency began to be achieved. To get a copy of this report from the American Education Reform Council, write to aerc@parentchoice.org.

National Charter Schools Week is coming, April 29-May 3! CER's National Charter Week Action Kit is now available. Call 1-800-521-2118 to reserve your copy, free to any charter school -- or download it right here online. And don't forget to check out more in depth news of events happening round the country. Click on Monthly Letter to Friends for the most notable in reform news!

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