Special Edition
Vol. 4, No. 33
August 13, 2002

Charter Schools: Up to their Eyes in Alligators 
A Special CER Newswire "Blog" * 
By Jeanne Allen, President of the Center for Education Reform

        If you're a parent, or you've ever accompanied a child to one of those arcades where you pay a quarter to play a game to get some tickets to get prizes that cost less than your quarter, then you've probably seen the game where you have to plunk the alligators on the head to score points. It looks like this: the game begins, and slowly three or four alligators begin to slide out of their caves. You hit them, they retreat, and you score a point. After a slow start, the alligators begin to slide out faster, until they are coming and going all at once. The small child without a grown-up's help can hardly hit them, so normally, you see child and adult together, WHAM!, on the heads of these hard plastic alligators. Then suddenly it's over, the tickets come out, and you're off to other games.

        That pretty much describes what is happening to the education reform movement when it comes to charter schools.

        This is the 10th year since a charter first opened, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Two years later, there were 30. Then almost overnight, there were 19 laws and 170 schools by the end of 1995. As this flurry of schools began and excitement over the improvements they bring began to slide out into broad daylight, WHAM!: the hits began.

        Just as the charter schools began hitting their stride and large numbers of bi-partisan coalitions and leaders embraced them, and many children and parents had the choices they needed for the first time, some groups that were threatened by these schools began working to push them back.

        Like the alligators in the arcade game, the charter schools are getting hit, not because these schools are bad, but because they exist. Kind of like the game where you hit the alligators just because they exist.

        It's very clear why it's happening -- most people do not like change. To make matters worse, change that affects one's livelihood is cause for protest.

        Those who are slamming the proverbial alligator on the head are currently comfortable with business as usual. Sadly, that means that they've accepted the notion that only a fraction of children will read or write and that the problems of our schools are too complex "to fix overnight." So they fight to defend the system as is.

        Charter schools, on the other hand, allow other people to have a say in how to develop and run schools. The charter people believe that anything less than 100% of success is unacceptable and that we should turn over every rock to find the best way to achieve that ambitious but correct goal.

        The people who push and start charter schools also believe that community and school-based decision making is vital to success. They support real accountability and freedom from bureaucratic meddling.

        And they are right.

        Charter schools are showing great promise. In Washington, DC, the best performing public school is a charter school. In Massachusetts, the top scoring schools are charter schools. In Colorado, the top ten are charters. In Arizona, the longer children are in a charter school, the better they perform. In California, the poorest of the poor do better in charters than in traditional public schools. In Newark, New Jersey, a charter school is outperforming every district school for less money than what those schools receive, and in spite of years of local and state intervention to force outcomes in the district.

        But of course, that's the biggest issue. We can't force outcomes in our schools. We can, however, expect the best, and give our schools the freedom, flexibility and control that the people closest to our children need to make their schools work. That's the charter concept in a nutshell.: Accountability in exchange for results.

        Do any charter schools fail? Sure they do, and they have. Some have been clunkers. But 94% nationwide are on firm ground, and while some of those struggle, you'd struggle, too, if someone was whamming your head all the time. Legislators are often mislead by wolves in sheep's clothing, and as a result many in states have made bad decisions and have tried to roll back the progress of charter schools, in the name of accountability.

        WHAM.

        It sounds good, but the devil is in the details. Proposals during this year's legislative sessions in New Jersey and Michigan, for example, would have restricted charters' freedoms and thus reduce their likelihood of success. Proponents of these ideas say that additional government oversight will curb abuses. The reality is that if government oversight were the key to accountability, our over-regulated traditional public schools would all be excellent, bar none. But they are not, and government oversight is not the key to great schools.

        America's entrepreneurial, civic-minded and caring nature is the key to great schools, and gratefully, even Washington gets it.

        False friends pay lip service to charter schools, and then issue reports laden with fabricated numbers and conclusions. But there are 1.6 million people involved in charters today, from student to charter board, and with increasing mandates to give children alternatives to failing schools, charters are part of the solution, but not without struggle. From state to state we can expect that charters will continue to be treated like the alligators in the arcade game by those whose ox is being gored. It doesn't matter, though, because eventually good ideas and successful endeavors trump even the worst entrenched interests, and with children the focus of the charter effort, success is assured.

* Blogging: According to U.S News & World Report: "from the words 'Web log'" meaning "[to] write online diaries and commentaries."

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