Vol. 4, No. 27
July 10, 2002

UNIONS: The NEA annual meeting wrapped Friday. Among their new business items was the election of new officers. Reg Weaver, the school employee union's VP for the past six years, won his bid for the top post, succeeding outgoing president Bob Chase. As expected, during his acceptance speech Weaver zeroed in on school vouchers as a target for defeat, citing other avenues available to them after the Supreme Court's ruling on their constitutionality. According to on-site reporting by the Education Intelligence Agency, other items included a $3 million challenge to the new federal education law, and the appointment of a special committee to look at organizing Pre-K teachers. Measures proposed -- but some not even considered -- included resolutions condemning the war on terrorism; a resolution which puts NEA in the fight to stop the transportation of high level nuclear waste for storage at Yucca Mountain, Nevada; and a measure that would require all teachers to be certified in public, charter, private and parochial schools. For more information, go to: http://www.eiaonline.com.

CHOICE: Last week we reported that the U.S. Education Department identified more than 8,600 schools nationwide as failing. One very disturbing statistic revealed in the state by state list was that Michigan had the largest number of failing schools -- 1,513 accounting for one-third of the state's public schools. A Michigan Education Department spokesman defended the numbers claiming they weren't "ashamed of the numbers," saying they were due to tough state standards. Rather than defending the indefensible, the education department should work to increase the number of options available to parents with children in these failing schools. For instance, Michigan's charter school law limits the number of schools that can be created, thereby limiting parental options. Maybe this will be enough to shake up the state legislature which, last we heard, was still looking for ways to adopt additional regulations for charter schools, a move that would no doubt leave charter schools in Michigan looking a lot like their traditional counterparts.

CHARTERS: The Sequoia School District, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is trying to avoid paying facilities money due the Aurora Charter High School in San Carlos via an $88 million district bond measure under the recently passed Prop. 39. The district filed a lawsuit two weeks ago to prevent the school from receiving its facilities aid. Sequoia claims they shouldn't have to provide facilities funding for the school since a neighboring district granted the charter. Redwood City District did so after Sequoia, mindful of its unique tax status (school funding based on tax assessments rather than state formula), persuaded the school's founders to withdraw their application for the high school and submit it in the Redwood City district. But Prop. 39 seems clear on the issue that public school facilities be shared equally with charter schools. Aurora is just days away from losing their current location with no where to go from there. The parents and teachers of Aurora Charter High School will hold a rally in Redwood City on July 17 at 5:00 pm. They have joined forces with four other charter schools in the area and have planned a massive campaign to fight this latest move to stymie the charter school movement in the Golden State. State leaders and charter school leaders are on alert, as is CER. For more information on the rally, contact Gary Larson at glarson@canec.org.

CHARTERS II: Tennessee's charter school bill was signed into law last week -- on Independence Day, ironically, given the law's clear lack of freedom for potential charters. Not only does the new law limit the creation of new-starts to districts that have failing schools, it also has restrictions on which types of applications can be appealed to the state board. Despite reading versions much worse than what eventually ended up on the Governor's desk, there is still little to cheer. There is no automatic waiver from regulations and only school boards can approve charters. The children of Tennessee may have some new choices next year, but given the obstacles that marked the bill's deliberation, we're convinced the local school boards will not stop short of creating roadblocks. To review the entire bill, go to: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills/currentga/Chapter/PC0850.pdf. Click here for CER's ranking of charter school laws.

PHILLY UPDATE: Former Chicago Schools CEO Paul Vallas was selected for Philadelphia's top education job. This is good news if the School Reform Commission empowers Vallas with freedom from ineffective contracts and other bureaucratic problems that have caused reform in the City of Brotherly Love to move at a snail's pace.

In other Philadelphia news: A unique fix for what ails Philadelphia schools has been proposed for one of the chronically failing schools slated for takeover. Victory Schools, Inc., a for-profit firm, has proposed turning the FitzSimmons Middle School into two separate single-sex schools -- each operating in the current space of the school but on different floors and with different principals. Supporting the program, Lynn Spampinato, former Philly district administrator said, "For the girls, it's a tremendous builder of self-confidence, and with the boys, the pressure is off in this culture, where sometimes it isn't cool to be smart." If approved by the community, the school would join a growing number of single-sex public schools in the country.

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