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Statement from CER Founder & CEO on Supreme Court Split Decision in Friedrichs Case

March 29, 2016 By

Jeanne Allen: Issue of Teachers’ Rights Not Going Away

WASHINGTON, DC (March 29, 2016)- Jeanne Allen, Founder and CEO of The Center for Education Reform, issued the following statement on the 4-4 Supreme Court ruling in the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association et al. case this morning:

The Supreme Court’s split decision on whether or not teachers should have the freedom to make decisions regarding their employment, unfettered by union control, does not mean that the issue of teachers’ rights is going away.

Why, in America, when we have freedom of choice and not a day goes by that we as a nation are not working to expand it to those who are denied, do we deny it to teachers to make their own decisions about how and under what conditions they should do their important work?

Great education is about great educators, and great educators need freedom. Great and courageous teachers like Rebecca Friedrichs have already exposed the public to the issue of union collective bargaining power in education, and when they come back to fight to make workplace freedom a reality, we will be ready to help them fight for their ability to be treated as professionals. We simply must. If we cannot educate children unfettered by the politics of unions, we cannot succeed as a nation.

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Filed Under: Press Releases

Race and Massachusetts Charter Schools

March 29, 2016 By

The Boston Globe reported on March 28, 2016 that “Racial aspects tinge Mass. charter debate.”

As the state debates lifting its cap on charter schools, if there’s to be any focus on race and charter schools, it should be centered around the fact that charter schools in MA, and across the nation, are helping minorities historically underserved by our traditional education system.

In Massachusetts, charter school students score proficient or advanced in every subject and at every grade level compared to their traditional public school peers. And, Massachusetts charter schools serve a student population that’s 58 percent Black and Latino compared to 27 percent statewide.

While the Globe reports that the NAACP opposes permitting more charter schools, the African American community is voting with its feet and choosing charter schools for their children. Because traditional civil rights groups like this oppose structural change, groups like the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) were born. African-American lawmakers and celebrities have advocated for charters and started their own, from former NBA star Jalen Rose in Detroit, MI, to John Legend supporting Harlem Village academies and writing a song in honor of the school’s first graduating class, to Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs announcing his support to start a charter school in Harlem, NY.

Perhaps if Massachusetts lifted the cap on charter schools, it would have more celebrities rushing to start schools there…

Filed Under: Breaking News

Lawsuit threatens public funding for charter schools in Louisiana

March 28, 2016 By

Louisiana Record
Sharon Brooks Hodge
Mar. 27, 2016

The fight for control of public education money in Louisiana will have another round in court now that the state teachers union and local school board members have challenged a district court ruling.

Members of the Iberville Parish School Board and the Louisiana Association of Educators have appealed a May 2015 decision from the 19th Judicial District Court for the Parish of East Baton Rouge. The court upheld a 1995 law authorizing state officials to fund charter schools.

Although the Iberville Parish case centers on $3 million, the outcome of the lawsuit could impact as much as $60 million distributed to 25 schools with 13,000 students across the state.

“Money will always be the biggest area of dissension in education as long as school boards maintain the flawed position that the money belongs to one set of systems and not to the people,” Jeanne Allen, CEO of the Center for Education Reform, told the Louisiana Record. “They have misinterpreted their role. They, school boards, are the stewards of money, not the controllers.”

In 2014, the Iberville school board alleged that the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education had wrongfully given district money to a charter school. Instead of the $16 million the district ordinarily would receive to use during the school year, in 2014 the state board appropriated $3 million to Iberville Charter Academy.

The district court determined that charter schools are public schools and the current funding plan established by the state can continue. Under that plan, every state-approved Type 2 charter school receives money from taxpayers. The amount is based on the number of students attending the school. As more students leave traditional public schools, funds to local school boards dwindle.

If the elected school board and teachers union are successful in their appeal, public funding would be discontinued to Type 2 charter schools in Louisiana, which could force the schools to close.

“Lawsuits over funding are always a threat,” Allen said. “But whether the charter schools in Louisiana will actually lose their funding, I highly doubt it because 15 state supreme courts with similar cases have all voted the same way. They have determined that parents are the right conduits for public money.”

According to Allen, the bureaucracy of school districts and school boards was created to manage the massive number of students in communities, not because it was the ideal system for education. Parents are making it clear that they want a choice and elected school boards should be listening.

“The disruption of funds to the charter schools would have disastrous and inequitable effects first and foremost on the children who attend these schools and rob these (largely underprivileged) kids and their parents of their only chance at a quality education,” a friend of the court brief filed by Jeannette Franklin, Christin Kaiser and PublicSchoolOptions.org said.

Filed Under: CER in the News Tagged With: , ,

Using Traditional School Methods to Assess Online Charters Is ‘Apples to Oranges’ Exercise

March 24, 2016 By

A letter to the editor published in Education Week addresses a national study about online charter schools that has raised concerns from many about its methodology.

Mary Gifford and Jeff Kwitowski from K12 Inc. write:

“Measuring online schools through accountability systems designed for traditional schools creates an apples-to-oranges exercise. These systems are often misaligned and do not effectively measure mastery or individual student progress over multiple points in time. States should move to competency-based assessments and student-centered accountability frameworks, which should emphasize academic gains over static proficiency; hold schools more accountable for students who are enrolled longer; and eliminate the perverse incentives that unfairly penalize schools of choice for serving transfer students who enter below proficiency or behind in credits.

Yes, student results in online schools must improve, but so, too, should the metrics and accountability systems.”

Click here to read the full letter.

Filed Under: Opinions

Newswire: March 22, 2016

March 22, 2016 By

Vol. 18, No. 12

NEW INDEX ON THE BLOCK. There’s a new education index on the block (of course Newswire readers know that CER’s Parent Power Index was one of the first) called the Education Equality Index, and it measures how well states, cities, and scScreen Shot 2016-03-22 at 5.07.08 PMhools are doing when it comes to closing the achievement gap for low-income children. Sadly, the statewide achievement gap is “massive” in three out of four states for which information is available. The bright spot is that nearly 30 percent of the 610 achievement gap-closing schools recognized in this study are charter schools, and yet such opportunities are still too few and rare to address the enormous challenges students face today from pre-school all the way through higher ed. We believe that fact calls for another index. How about an Parent Power Index that gauges not just how states are doing, like Parent Power does, but how many opportunities really exist to address that education gap? It would not be a pretty sight.

BLUEGRASS CHARTER UPDATE. A charter pilot, albeit weak compared to what we know after 20 years of studying what works when it comes to the nation’s best charter laws, passed the Kentucky Senate 28-9. Legislation moves to the House next, amid noise from the KEA because of a provision that prohibits the unionization of a charter school — or in other words takes away their power— making the bill “unacceptable to us.” The reality is this bill isn’t likely to pass this year, which allows charter champions in the Bluegrass State to take another bite of the apple, and hopefully a bigger one next time around.

MORE RESEARCH RUCKUS. A report that fails basic standards of sound research methodology grabbed the attention of the New York Times, reporting with a headline saying charters are more likely to suspend black and disabled students. The report makes sweeping generalizations without the kind of detail or data that is actually helpful to making good public policy. Thankfully, many in the know are speaking out against the report’s flimsy research methods. A learning moment for reporters, who should be cautious of research studies making sweeping generalizations about charters, particularly after the 2009 CREDO report.

12295411_548111662012069_4535332731884006862_nLOUISIANA OBSTRUCTIONS. The Jefferson, LA Parish Council has become a forceful advocate on behalf of charter schools, just as the local school board is pushing back on the threat of a successful Kenner charter school. Council members passed a resolution to oppose any action to block the popular charter school’s renewal. “Whatever we can do for you, we will do,” council member Ben Zahn said after the vote. “It’s a great school. I have nothing bad to say about it,” said another council member. The charter has a waiting list of more than 1,000 students, and received more than 1,400 applications for just 200 open seats. And yet, the school board wants it closed. Go figure.

PARENT POWER. The Walton Family Foundation announced last week that it has embarked on a five-year strategic plan that continues its long-term focus on dramatically expanding educational opportunity for all children. We are grateful to WFF Board Chair Carrie Walton Penner for taking a stand on parent power. Her visit with a kindergarten class at a Los Angeles charter school that puts parents first is well-timed, given the opposition of LAUSD as it rejected a parent trigger petition from nearly 350 parents who want a better elementary school for their children. The school Ms. Penner visited is Synergy Academies, whose Co-Founder Dr. Meg Palisoc is a CER fave! Meg recalls attending a CER-led parent meeting in L.A. years ago and our efforts to support her along the way as she started her first school. Today, Synergy Academies is thriving, and it’s because Palisoc, a former L.A. Unified teacher, understands that kids, and in turn their parents, are at the heart of what the education system is truly all about.

ED TECH INNOVATION OF THE WEEK. Founded by experienced ed tech entrepreneurs, EdBacker is the nation’s first user-friendly online platfoScreen Shot 2016-03-22 at 5.04.04 PMrm designed to address the pain points that come along with America’s educational funding gap. From fundraising, to eliminating barriers between corporate entities and districts, to donor management, to parent communication, EdBacker goes beyond just a financial relationship. “Everyone agrees education is important, but making it tangible where they can do something about it is difficult – and that’s EdBacker’s real success,” Gary Hensley, CEO & Founder of EdBacker, told CER’s Newswire. In just three years of existence, EdBacker has helped raise nearly one million dollars for US students from parents and communities. The money also means more people are vested in what the schools are doing, and, we believe, more informed as a result. (Have an ed tech innovation that advances student, educator or parent power? Send it to Michelle@edreform.com)

 

Filed Under: Newswire Weekly, Newswire

Opinion: Building Up Barriers

March 16, 2016 By

Hillary Clinton’s position on school choice hurts low-income students

March 16, 2016
Rachel Campos-Duffy
U.S. News & World Report

Last month, presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton unveiled a new agenda she promised would tear down barriers to opportunity for low-income and minority communities. While she was able to garner a few headlines, it doesn’t change the fact that she opposes the surest way to give children the best shot at a better life: expanding school choice and access to charter schools.

I say that as a Latina mother of seven who has taken advantage of educational options for my own children, and who has seen school choice policies improve thousands of lives in my home state of Wisconsin. It has clearly worked for Hispanic families in Florida, Nevada, Arizona and elsewhere.

Charter schools in particular have proven a lifeline for millions of children stuck in chronically failing schools. That’s especially true in some urban areas where fewer than one-in-three students are proficient in reading and writing. For these children, charter schools are their only chance to escape a life of hopelessness and poverty.

Clinton hasn’t always been so opposed. In fact, as first lady, she was a strong supporter of the charter school movement. During a 1998 White House meeting, she advocated that “charter schools are a way of bringing teachers and parents and communities together.”

But as a presidential candidate, Clinton has flipped to a steadfast opponent of school choice, making no exception in the instance of failing traditional public schools. As she put it last year, “I want parents to be able to exercise choice within the public school system – not outside of it.”

As a mother myself, I cannot imagine a more heartless response to the millions of children whose lives depend on access to charter schools. No child’s future should ever be dictated by what zip code they were born in. Yet with their families lacking the resources for a private school education, they are left with no choice but to carry on in despair.

Clinton herself chose private school for her daughter, as did our current president for his daughters. For someone who speaks so often about leveling the playing field in America, shouldn’t opportunity and parental choice in education be the privilege of all Americans, and not just the elite, wealthy and well-connected?

All of which makes Clinton’s “breaking down barriers” agenda ring hollow. As years of evidence show, charters are the best shot at providing low-income and minority children a better life.

The educational benefits speak for themselves. A 2015 study from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that urban-area charter school students – 95 percent of whom are minorities in some urban areas – receive the equivalent of 28 extra days of reading instruction and 40 days of math every single school year.

This translates into higher educational achievement. Compared to traditional public schools, a 2014 study by Mathematica Policy Research found that charter students are between 7 and 11 percent more likely to graduate high school. Similarly, a 2011 RAND Corporation study found charter high school students were 8 to 10 percent more likely to enroll in college than their peers.

Unsurprisingly, parents have been yearning for more access to such high-quality education. From 2009 to 2012, the most recent year for which data are available, the Center for Education Reform reports that waiting lists grew by 19 percent. As of this month, there are more than 6,800 charter schools serving nearly three million students across the country.

More impressive still is that charters have achieved these successes with less than two-thirds of the public funding traditional public schools receive. That’s billions of dollars a year less in public funding to produce better educational outcomes, shattering the argument by Clinton and others that our schools are failing because they are underfunded. [Charter schools do receive private funding.]

Yet despite this overwhelming evidence, Clinton is steadfast in her opposition. She instead stands with the national teachers unions and other obstructionists who argue that charter schools are only successful because they cherry-pick the best students.

That argument is simply untrue. Most charter schools admit students by random lottery, making it impossible for them to pick only the best. And when students are admitted, they are more likely to stay there. A 2015 report from the New York City Independent Budget Office, for example, found “students at charter schools stay at their schools at a higher rate than students at nearby traditional public schools.”

It’s a shame we even have to have this debate, but is typical of the status quo that puts special interests above the interests of our children. Parents and grandparents ought to understand the importance of making sure the next generation excels – and charter schools have proven extraordinarily successful nearly everywhere they’ve been tried.

Clinton will never truly tear down barriers to opportunity until she tears down her own opposition to giving all parents the choices and opportunities she gave her own daughter.

Rachel Campos-Duffy is the national spokesperson for The LIBRE Initiative.

Filed Under: CER in the News Tagged With: , , , , ,

Newswire: March 15, 2016

March 15, 2016 By

Vol. 18, No. 11

ED TECH CAN BOOST OPPORTUNITY. Every child in America deserves the opportunity to access a high-quality education in whatever formphoto 2at best fits their needs. Microsoft knows CER Founder Jeanne Allen has been a tireless advocate towards that goal, and wanted her thoughts on how ed tech, a booming source of innovation in the education world, can help make that a reality. Here’s what she had to say.

ARE YOU A SLACKER? Slack is a digital platform helping teams “be less busy,” bringing all communication together in one place, combining real-time messaging with archiving and search functionality. With over 2.3 million users since its launch two years ago, EdSurge is taking note of Slack’s popularity, posing whether it could be the next online learning platform as “it signals a new way to house learning online, more akin to the seminar classroom than the lecture hall.” We’ve been fans of this tool for a long time, and can attest to its effectiveness in streaming our own in-house edreform conversations!

EDUCATED VOTE. Voters in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio are taking to the polls today in another big primary Tuesday. Whether or not you have voted yet, make your sure the ballot you cast is an informed decision. With Bernie Sanders making up a new kind of charter school, and Trump earning three Pinocchios from the Washington Post for his comments on Common Core, it’s more important than ever to determine what’s reality and rhetoric and learn how to spot a truly reform-minded candidate. A vote for expanded educational opportunities is a vote for a great nation, so be sure to get active and get involved.

TIME FOR CONGRESS TO ACT. That’s whDC_Rally_WS_03at the Washington Post Editorial Board, Mayor Muriel Bowser and a majority of the DC Council, and parents of the more than 1,900 applicants for just 146 spots are saying about the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). If Congress doesn’t reauthorize the DC OSP, funding could dry up with no new students being accepted after the 2016-17 school year. With three DC Council members having a change of heart about killing a program that’s successfully helping low-income children, let’s hope newly minted Education Secretary John King will sing a different tune about his Department sitting on $35 million in carry-over funds dedicated to the DC OSP. 

TRIBUTE. A message from Jeanne Allen, the Center’s Founder:

In a world fixated on a political race that challenges all measure of civility, we often fail to recognize the incredible people who have shown us a path to what it really means to make America better. Beth Curry and Jim Kimsey were two such people. They left this world in the recent past, but their gifts, and their example, live on.

Beth Curry was co-founder of Eagle Capital with her husband Ravenel, and together this Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 3.33.48 PMCharlotte, NC native and her husband would contribute to education and education reforms throughout the nation. Beth helped drive their philanthropy with her inquisitive mind, helping to tackle cities as perniciously difficult to improve as Newark. In my few meetings with her on regular visits to seek support, Beth would focus the conversation on how parents and children might have real power, and whether particularly policies or practices would help them get it. I always thought, wow, if more donors asked these questions, we may arrive at our destination of excellence for all students much sooner.

Equally focused on giving parents choices and kids a chance, Jim Kimsey was a strong Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 3.36.22 PMand early contributor to the programs created to do precisely that in Washington, DC. The co-founder of AOL not only used his financial resources but his political clout to help others, like his old friend Joe Robert, ensure that the city and the nations’ elected officials do everything in their power to save children from failing schools and create real opportunities for education success. The DC scholarship program was an outgrowth of their support, and Kimsey’s commitment to answering the call of schools throughout the region was legion.

While only acquaintances, I saw in both of these individuals enormous positivity and humility in all they supported. Interestingly, neither of their obituaries talks about their great education contributions. But for countless families, Beth and Jim’s generosity of purse and spirit truly made lives better.

 

 

Filed Under: Newswire Weekly, Newswire

The Miseducation of CNN (And Bernie Sanders)

March 15, 2016 By

A question posed to Bernie Sanders at last night’s Ohio democratic debate was a missed opportunity to powerfully educate the public about charter schools.  Typically, information is power, but when the information is bad, all we have is mush.  Following is Sanders’ exchange with the questioner and Roland Martin, a well-informed media commentator with a passion for education: (with some of my own commentary sprinkled in)

MARTIN:  Since I have a brother and two sisters who are teachers, and one who is a teacher’s aide, let’s go to a teacher.  We have Caitlyn Dunn, she helps lead a charter school here in Columbus, Ohio.  She did Teach for America and saw the inequities in our school system, and she says she is undecided.  So, you got a shot.  Go for it.

DUNN:  Thank you so much for taking my question.  An article was released in the Columbus Dispatch Friday announcing the schools producing top student gains from around the state of Ohio.  Of these, one-third of those schools producing these results were charters right here in Columbus, Ohio.  So, knowing this, and also having similar narratives from across the country, do you think that charter schools are a viable way to educate children in low-income communities, or do you think that you would continue, as President, giving money to traditional public schools?

During this time, apparently CNN’s Teleprompter was miscued by an ill-informed editor, because rather than abbreviate the question correctly, CNN produced this bastardized version, suggesting that charters were not public schools.

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Adding insult to injury, Mr. Sanders seemed to create a new class of charter schools, one that does not exist, when he responded.  To some applause he said,

SANDERS:  I believe in public education, and I believe in public charter schools.  But then he added:  I do not believe in private – privately controlled charter schools.

Privately-controlled charters?  Charter schools are governed by publicly accountable, publicly representative, non-profit school boards who most often hire and manage their own teams – accountable for results directly to the taxpayer via the sponsor of their school.  Those sponsors in the 44 states that have charter schools range from the least preferred state education departments or only school districts, to the more innovative and effective universities, city officials and sometimes independent not for profit entities.

Sanders continued:

And, I will tell you what else I believe. I believe that when we talk about education as a nation, we have got to make education not just rhetorically, but in reality one of the great priorities facing our country. I get a little bit tired about hearing about all the great football players and the millions of dollars a year they make. Maybe we should talk about the great teachers in this country and make sure that they can earn a good wage…

I intend to do everything that I can to create a first-class national child care system with well-paid, well-trained teachers so that the all of our little kids get a start in life that is worthy of children in the United States of America.

With great skill, Martin took the question back to school choice.

MARTIN:  Senator Sanders, I listened to your answer about charter schools and not supporting the private charters.

SANDERS:  Yes.

MARTIN:  But we use taxpayer dollars in forms of grants for folks to go to private colleges.  We did a poll for TV One and rolandsmartin.com, nearly 80 percent of black parents said they support charters, they support school vouchers.  Many Democrats don’t.

So explain how we can support tax dollars going to private colleges, but we don’t believe in school choice for folks in elementary, middle, and high school?

SANDERS:  I think that – I think there is a difference.

MARTIN:  And that is?

SANDERS:  And I think the difference is that right now public schools all over this country are being defunded.  And money is leaving the public school system.

Hmm, traditional public schools are funded at an all time high— nearly $12,000 per-pupil, and they serve fewer children since charters came about.  And the number of public education administrators and non-teaching staff, last measured, rose 46 percent in under 20 years— a growth 2.7 times greater than the increase in students over the same period.  Where is that $ coming from?

SANDERS continues:  And you may want to argue with me, and it’s a good debate, but I happen to believe that public schools, the ideas of neighborhood schools, people from different economic levels, rich and poor and middle class coming together, that is one of the reasons that we created the kind of great nation that we have.

Then this would-be president might consider that charter schools, the original neighborhood schools, are actually more integrated in urban communities than traditional public schools.

So, we are going to do everything that we can to support public education, and support experimentation in public education.  In my city of Burlington, Vermont, we have started some great public – I don’t know what they are called, charter schools.  One of them is into – one is, well, I forgot what it is actually.

MARTIN:  Magnet school?

Clearly Martin knows that Vermont has yet to tolerate any meaningful proposal to create charter schools.  Meanwhile by supporting magnet schools, Sanders is actually endorsing selective admissions, which creates a greater divide between haves and have-nots.

SANDERS:  Yes, magnet-type schools.  And they’re doing a great job.  So I want to see a lot of experimentation, but I do not want to see the money leave the public schools.

Oh is that all?  Well thank God charters are public schools.  Right Mr. Sanders?

Filed Under: Commentary, Edspresso Tagged With: , , ,

Editorial: For D.C., reauthorizing school choice is the right choice

March 15, 2016 By

March 14, 2016
The Washington Post

IN THEIR zeal to kill off the federally funded scholarship program for poor D.C. students, opponents have peddled the fiction that Congress foisted the program on an unwilling city. In fact, the program was backed enthusiastically by then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and a key D.C. Council member, and parent demand for scholarships far outstrips supply. So let’s hope that a letter from Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and a majority of the council urging continued funding for the program finally puts the myth to rest and helps allow more students to benefit from the program.

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides needy students with vouchers to attend private schools of their choice, is up for reauthorization. As has happened before with all-too-depressing frequency since the scholarships were established in 2004, the program is under attack from unions and other opponents. If Congress fails to act, the city will also lose out on millions of dollars that go to its traditional and charter public schools as part of the three-sector federal funding deal.

The very real danger of the District losing $150 million in federal funds over five years apparently finally sunk in with members of the council. Three members who previously had urged that the program be killed joined Ms. Bowser and five other members, including council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), in a March 7 letter to congressional leaders in support of the Scholarships for Opportunities and Results (SOAR) Act. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) in a statement called the support of the mayor and council “an important boost” in the effort to get reauthorization to the president’s desk.

We hope so. Mr. Ryan is right that “when we give more families a choice, more students succeed.” Uncertainty about the future of the program is the alleged reason the Education Department has, for several years, put a hold on funds that would allow additional students into the program. Officials with Serving Our Children, the nonprofit that took over administration of the scholarships in October, told us there are more than 1,900 applicants, with more expected, for just 146 new spots next year. If Congress doesn’t reauthorize the program, funding could dry up, with no new students accepted after the 2016-2017 school year. The scholarships provide a lifeline to low-income and underserved families, giving them the school choice that more affluent families take as a given. And because the program results in more federal money for D.C. public education and not less — another myth advanced by opponents — it’s time for Congress to act.

Filed Under: Opinions Tagged With: , ,

Charter Schools Work For Teachers

March 11, 2016 By

Public charter schools have been making headlines in recent years. As policymakers debate equitable funding and expansion, teachers like me are on the frontlines of this pioneering movement.

I believe it’s critical that teacher voices be heard when debating the future of charter schools in Georgia.

I’ve been an educator for five years. When I graduated from undergrad with a degree in English Language and Literature, my head was spinning in at least ten directions. Would I pursue a career in journalism as planned? Would I dedicate my time, energy and writing talents to a nonprofit organization? Or should I take my love for education and work to revive a crumbling school system – Detroit Public Schools.

I chose the latter route and found a home at a charter school in its second year of operation. The principal was a young, vibrant educator with a passion for perfection. Quickly, I fell in love with the flexibility and creativity that I was afforded even as a paraprofessional without a teaching certificate.

Once I was certified, I pursued other charter schools in Atlanta and surrounding areas. It is in this innovative environment that I’ve been able to experience the flexibility and autonomy that I’ve always envisioned for my career.

Despite serving millions of students and employing thousands of educators across the country, these laboratory-like schools are still misunderstood in many communities in Georgia. Independent charter schools in Atlanta are unique public schools offered bureaucratic freedom in exchange for real results. Just like traditional public schools, they don’t charge tuition, are publicly funded, and open to anyone who applies.

My charter school has the freedom to adjust the school day, choose new and exciting curriculum resources, and develop strong models for learning. Teachers like me are treated as equal partners with valuable experience and ideas, asked to lead professional development sessions and change actually happens when teachers’ voices are heard.

My reasons for staying at a charter school are simple, but the most powerful pull for me has been the fact that charter schools either fail or succeed because of their ability to make choices. Schedules and hours can be tweaked, curriculums can be discontinued if they’re not working, professional development opportunities are left at the discretion of both the leadership and classroom teachers – catered to the needs of the staff.

I also love the idea that teachers have more opportunities to move around within the educational setting. One year you’re teaching a classroom full of scholars, the next you may be positioned as a branding manager, parent liaison, or curriculum coach. Charters tap into the talents and passions of their teachers to better their schools…and better schools breed better students.

I know that teachers, not just in Atlanta, but across the state understand the transcending power of a high quality education. The vast majority of my colleagues enter the profession with dreams of changing lives and impacting communities. Nowhere is this dream more alive than in public charter schools designed to serve the Atlanta’s most high-need students. I’m proud to match my vision of education with a school that needs teachers like me.

The truth is educators on the front lines know a one-size-fits-all system does little to address the unique needs of all our students. Students learn differently, just as teachers have their own strengths and weaknesses. In adapting to system of choice across the country, professional educators are realizing that advances like charter schools are not only meeting needs for students, but also providing professional opportunity. We must see this progression across Georgia.

While the status quo would have you believe educators are not in favor of choice initiatives like public charter schools, thousands of teachers support this new direction and are working in schools of choice every day.

According to a membership survey by the Association of American Educators, teachers across the country are indeed warming to policies that advance parental and student choice. As a member, I couldn’t be more proud that my colleagues are embracing the wave of the future for our students and teachers.

My message to stakeholders in Georgia is simple. As a public charter school teacher, I’m directly benefiting from choices in education and I’m grateful. I wake up knowing that I am in an environment that challenges me professionally and allows me to work with scholars who need me most.

Ain Drew is a public charter school teacher in Atlanta.

This post was originally published by the Association of American Educators here.

Filed Under: Choice & Charter Schools
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