Roller Coaster Ride of School Choice
Who knew that working in public education would come with so many twists and turns? This past 24 years have been tantamount to being in the front car of a rollercoaster at an amusement park run by older adults taking long smoke breaks while the machinery is breaking down. Public education in America in the last century was innovative and world class. Yet, it was preparing students for an industrial workforce and not the future. We maintain the rickety wooden coaster, while not introducing the sleek and modern park monorail.
Where the ride started:
The formation of charter public schools in 1991 in Minnesota, and followed by California in 1992, was a concept of the Democratic party and unionized teachers wanting to create innovative schools to offer hope and opportunity to try something new that would help traditional school districts. The hope was that when a small change happened, that could spur greater change across the ecosystem of public education.
As the number of charter public schools grew nationally, the intrenched traditional system of public education didn’t embrace the changes happening in these schools around them and only embolden the thinking of many adults in the room. The thought of losing control, watching millions of parents making different choices of where to educate their children, and seeing the challenge to their decade old stronghold in the balance, created a backlash of resentment and decisions that sought the demise of charter schools and not their needed expansion.
There are too many examples of charter public schools changing the trajectory of students’ lives and then local governing board’s curtailing or closing those schools that are truly making a difference at a cost to the community to protect their own enrollment. Do these adults not understand that parents and guardians are very aware of the fact of what programs, options, and academic opportunities are available in a community for their children? Parents are very aware and have made a choice to attend a charter public school. That annoys and infuriates traditionalists, and they would rather keep students in a nominal or failing school than commit to accomplish the hard work needed to make their schools better for the benefit of all.
When adults in power make decisions that are best for the adults in power, students are not winning. Add to that, when these school boards make decisions believing that a closure of a charter school equates to seeing an enrollment boost in their schools, the surprise that sets in is startling to many. Parents left traditional schools seeking better options and are highly unlikely to return to a neighborhood school. The Board’s decision merely emboldens those parents who left and now their choices to seek homeschooling and independent learning for their children becomes their best and most promising option.
Leadership is Changing:
Now, the advent of charter public schools passing their 30th anniversary, the first line of innovators, dreamers, and doers are stepping into retirement and a new breed of leadership has been arriving. These are people who didn’t endure the pioneering days and have been enjoying the fruits of the labor of those that came before them. To some degree, we are seeing the rise of maintainers and not necessarily innovators and visionaries pushing schools, and the entire system, to the next level. It takes one style of leadership to create, another to innovate, and having the desire to drive continual change to meet the demands of students is not within the wheelhouse of every school leader. A charter school executive director or CEO does not make a great traditional school superintendent or vise versa. These are different leadership roles with two different planned outcomes. One is for driving change and one is for maintaining a system.
What is also happening is that protectionism is taking root throughout the charter school system that fears the disruption of new concepts and ideas that challenge the current thinking of those within the sphere. When you have charter school leadership, regional, state, and national charter school advocates unwilling to support ideas and concepts that push for expanding more choices for students and families, we are part of the problem and fear the solution. That solution is understanding the current factors at play and the need that many parents and guardians want to see happen against a backdrop of not being heard.
Sign of the Times:
The culture wars that are raging all around us and getting worse. The news stories these past few months are about the disappearance of students and why are parents still homeschooling? Then we are seeing the growth in the number of parents pushing back at local school Board meetings, their disdain for adult books in children’s libraries, and now in California the Governor and State Attorney General are threatening every school leader and school Board member about book banning. Add to that, a suburb of Los Angeles, the Glendale School District, had members of Antifa show up and fan the flames at a protest and the police were called to stop the violence.
These stories are just indicators that families have lost trust in public education and the leadership involved. The pandemic forced parents into trying something new, and parents have growing concerns in not having their voices truly heard by policy and law makers. At some point, we need reasonable parents running for state office, local school Board seats, and making all students the focus on what is decided. Parents are embracing choice, finding support in the community, and discovering the confidence to go it alone.
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Now enter the Oklahoma decision to allow the Catholic Church to open the nation’s first sectarian public charter school. That decision has elevated the bluster of adults across the spectrum calling the decision everything but a good one at odds in supporting parents wanting another option to educate their children. We will leave it to the Supreme Court to figure out the detail’s years from now. I’m far from having a sharp legal mind on such matters, yet at my core I know that “separation of” and “separation from” are two different concepts and with two different intentions when church and state intersect. Oh, how I wish Cher could turn back time and know we could all benefit from a conversation with our Founding Fathers on these matters.
I still contend that the current bluster over the Oklahoma decision is tied to adults in the room afraid of losing power, prestige, and the control of the cash used to educate students in a sectarian space. With the culture wars raging, and the evidence rising over hatred of white, Christian, and conservative values in this country, it is not without merit that educational savings accounts, vouchers in a sense, and now one state approving a religious public option, is an attempt by some to level the playing field so that parents avoid the culture wars in an attempt to protect their values and beliefs.
My Personal Leadership View:
What am I seeing from my leadership seat at The Classical Academies in North San Diego County is that the culture has completely shifted since our inception in 1999. The past 10 years the speed of that change has accelerated greatly and the people I employ, and the families I partner with, share a deep concern as the cobalt blue wave laps at the window demanding they embrace the changes without question. I reread the Governor’s and Attorney General’s memo again and must balk at the open threats to stay in line or be prosecuted. Let’s be honest, bullies love to persecute those that hold a different opinion. In California, it is much harder in 2023 to hold a differing opinion on any topic not prescribed already from Sacramento.
Supremely Aware of the Future:
Now, with the Supreme Court stepping back in declining to hear the case regarding a charter school dress code decision out of North Carolina, many in power breathed a sigh of relief knowing that the highest court could have removed the public designation that charter schools have long touted and enjoyed. Since the conservative majority on the Supreme Court garner the most attention for their reliance on our founding documents in their decision making, and not the current trends or culture, the division in the country over school choice will ultimately be decided at a showdown before this body at some point in the future. Until then, parents will continue to demand options, will not settle for status quo, and will rise in greater numbers to challenge the lack of great offerings within the landscape of public education.
May we as the leaders, dreamers, and innovators be willing to welcome new thinking, ideas, and concepts that move passed what we have established and lead us to what is next without hesitation. Some emerging ideas will draw families away from current offerings, states will pass legislation that closes one door, while opening another, and what is now the favorite option of some will become a distant memory as change better aligns with community needs. Let us all commit today to what is best for students. If that is our heart’s creed, then when change does arrive, we are merely willing to embrace it with the excitement of the promise and potential of its impact on students and their learning.
An Adventure Still Awaits:
The next chapter of what is best for students is still being written. May the authors of today, and builders of tomorrow, partner in a bond of settling for more, reaching beyond the boundaries of the maps currently drawn, and arrive at a new plateau where ideas, innovation, and creative student possibilities go to prosper. We are counting on you and know that what is happening now in public education can be so much better with the right leadership mindset, passion and purpose harnessed, and a compass set on excellence over excuses.
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1yNicely written
Chief Catalyst of Culture, Centrepointe Leadership | Keynote Speaker, Facilitator, Author | Chief Excellence Officer, Quantum Learning Global
1yTo the excellent public charter schools in California: Stay the course; the one that places students' post-secondary success in junior college, university, military service, or the trades first.
Executive Director at Julian Charter School
1yExcellent!