Vol. 4, No. 24
June 25, 2002

* CHOICE: Less than two days from now, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue its long-awaited decision in the case of the Cleveland, Ohio Scholarship program. Anticipation is building, as are hopes of countless parents currently waiting for much-needed choices to become a reality. Look for news and analysis later this week.

        Washington, DC parents on waiting lists for privately-funded scholarship will be picnicking at the Capitol grounds on Wednesday evening at 4:30, learning more about the potential for change that may be ushered in by the High Court's decision. For more information or to attend the gathering, contact Tracey Johnson at the Washington Scholarship Foundation at tjohnson@wsf-dc.org or (202) 293-5560.

UPDATE: Supreme Court Rules Cleveland Ohio School Choice Program is Constitutional, June 27, 2002.

* CHOICE II: Weeks of budget negotiations had the Milwaukee choice program locked in limbo, but thanks to the Governor's tenacity, a bipartisan crew of legislators, the force of the reformers on the Milwaukee school board, and thousands of parents in the city, the program emerged unscathed.

* CHARTERS: The National Charter School Conference put on by the U.S. Department of Education united about 2,100 charter leaders from throughout the US last week. Secretary of Education Rod Paige emphasized that the education system needs charter schools and they should not be viewed as a monetary drain. "The funds are not there for the school system, they're there for the education of the child."

        Going one step further, former Education Secretary William J. Bennett declared upon learning that civil rights heroine Rosa Parks was denied a charter that "we need a quiet, non-violent revolution" and that, perhaps, Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are 'A Changing" should be the movement's theme song. Bennett argued a theme CER Newswire readers have seen here often - that there is a war on charter schools that needs to be recognized, fought and won.

* TENNESSEE: That message appears all but lost in what's known as the Volunteer State, where this following sentence says about all that needs to be said about the charter bill that is likely to soon pass:

"I've always hated charter schools, but this bill is… full of protections. It will be the tightest-drawn [READ - RESTRICTIVE] bill in the country." 
-- Senator Roscoe Dixon, Democrat from Memphis.

* IOWA: Dixon may have to fight with Iowa for who has the most restrictive law. Did we mention recently that this bill will likely not even result in a rating compared with other laws since it gives only public schools - with all their attendant regulations - the option of organizing a charter school?

*CALIFORNIA: Here they go again! Several pieces of legislation have been introduced to restrict the operations of charter schools or add additional layers of oversight, thanks to the already lax oversight of a handful of school districts that approved but did not scrutinize the applications of several high-profile failures. The irony in the Golden State's story is that like most states, the school boards associations lobby heavily to retain the only power to approve charter schools, rather than allow state universities or other institutions to provide leadership in this arena. When schools fail, as they have in California, the school boards argue that "they don't have the resources to police the charters." If that's the case - maybe it's time for California policymakers to take up a bill that allows alternative authorities to do the job that the school boards have neglected. But as California's charter association argues, "the problems of a handful of charters shouldn't be allowed to hurt the majority that have improved student test scores." For more information go to http:///www.canec.org.

* ACHIEVEMENT: Don't know much about … is becoming a frequent tune in American student achievement. Last week, the federal statistics folks joined the National Geographic Society in releasing the nation's geography report card. The results follow the math and history trends. There were small increases in 4th and 8th grade, but no change for 12th grade. Even with the increases, however, only 21 and 30 percent of students in 4th and 8thgrade, respectively, are proficient in this increasingly important subject. Just under thirty percent lack even basic knowledge in each grade tested, and roughly half of all students in grades 4, 8 and 12 show only a basic knowledge of geography.

* PHILLY: Reformers were outraged at the recent announcements by the School Reform Commission to conduct more "studies" of how to transform several large, troubled high schools. As if the mass of research and data about why schools fail and what can be done is not enough, the SRC - acting more like bureaucratic cogs than the sharp business entity it is supposed to be - just gave contracts to private firms to study and make recommendations about how to improve these schools for the year after next. It certainly wasn't an interest in more studies that caused the Pennsylvania State Legislature to impose a new system on the City of Brotherly Love. Many feel it's high time the SRC's "boss," the Governor, stepped in to clarify that law, and find people up to the job. For more background on the Philly Overhaul, read all about it In the News, the  June 18 Newswire, and the June 2002 Monthly Letter.

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