The Charter Blog
30 Nov 2006
Advice for Maryland
Sign of a true patriot...
Despite losing his bid for a seat in the MD legislature, Alliance CoS Andy Smarick offers some friendly advice to the incoming governor of the opposing party.
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27 Nov 2006
Pigs Fly and Such
MUST READ from the New York Times on great charter models ...
I KNEW the day would come, but it has happened with greater speed than I imagined ... the New York Times published this piece in its Sunday Magazine. While not all is rosy, it is an excellent discussion of the most promising, replicable charter models out there (including Uncommon Schools, KIPP, and Achievement First).
Arm yourself with some caffeine, because it's LONG, but well worth the read. I welcome LOTS of comments on this.
JC
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November 24 2006
Toledo Charter Among Nation's Top 8 Schools for Minority Students
Comment »LA Charter Fights for Space
Comment »November 21 2006
Charters Forge New Path
Comment »"Expanding" Fund Would Help IL Charters Grow
Comment »November 20 2006
Chartering in New Orleans
Comment »17 Nov 2006
Mo' Money for AZ Charters
Funding parity for the Grand Canyon State?
Nelson and I were at the Arizona Charter Schools Conference when state superintendent Tom Horne made this announcement. He's asking for $78.5MM to equalize the state funding of public charter schools and traditional public schools. Right now, charters receive almost $900 less than districts per-pupil from the state.
Do I even need to drop the soundbyte? Oh, okay ... it seems like at least SOME folks in Arizona realize that a little girl or boy in a charter school isn't worth less than his/her friend in the traditional public school down the road.
JC
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16 Nov 2006
Gates Grant for Replication
Envision Schools get $6.9MM to replicate ...
The San Francisco Business Times reports that San Francisco based Envision Schools has received $6.9 million dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand its program throughout California. This is happening on the coattails of Bill Gates's recent speech on education reform.
A couple of important things here. One, replicating high quality school models. I can't say enough about this ... some school models just work better, and most of them require HARD WORK. Innovation is important, but it is more important to expand the practices that we know work for children.
Second, this is just another example of Caliornia's leadership in charter schooling. There are more examples of high quality models replicating in CA than in any other state, notably Green Dot, which has carte blanche to open schools statewide.
Finally, this forces us to step back and re-examine the "single board, single school" charter model. As long as replication does not come at the expense of quality, we need to do more of this!
JC
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A Great Man Passes
From all of us who work in the charter vineyards, a deep bow to Milton Friedman, who died today...
The Times repeats a line from our current Fed chairman about his views on monetary policy — but it applies here: “His thinking has so permeated modern macroeconomics that the worst pitfall in reading him today is to fail to appreciate the originality and even revolutionary character of his ideas.”
We’re about to celebrate the 15th anniversary of public charter schools - but they mightn’t have happened without Friedman’s audacity in 1955, when his voucher proposal startled complacent public schooling with the idea that competition might provide better outcomes. He welcomed charter schools as one of many approaches to choice — although his heart was clearly with full-out private markets.
As we see it, charter schooling’s combination of a robust, parent-driven market of school choices, publicly funded and accountable to public authorities, is a life-saver for over a million kids — and Friedman’s intellect and passion helped make the movement possible. R.I.P.
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