Guest Blog: Don’t Stifle KIPP’s Success

The past couple of years have been an exciting time for education in Baltimore.  Charter schools are thriving, enrollment is up, and test scores at some schools are equal to those of suburban schools for the first time in a generation.   One charter school, KIPP Ujima Village Academy, is consistently one of the highest performing middle schools in the state.  And now, as featured this morning on CNN’s Back to School Series, KIPP Ujima’s very program is threatened because it doesn’t conform with the instructional day as defined by Baltimore City’s collective bargaining agreement.

For seven years,  KIPP Ujima teachers have agreed to voluntarily work the long hours determined by the schools culture (9 hours a day, plus 2 Saturdays a month). In exchange for these long hours, KIPP Ujima teachers are paid 18 percent more than the salary scale paid by Baltimore Public Schools meaning that Ujima teachers are among the city’s highest-paid.  But now, according to the union, 18 percent isn’t enough-- it needs to be 33 percent. And these salary demands are being enforced in a tough economic year when jobs are hard to find. 

So here is a case of a good school, doing right by its students and teachers and making achievement gains, forced to make sacrifices in order to abide by rules created in a bureaucratic system. KIPP Ujima has cut hours and staff in order to comply, but the trade-off punishes kids who directly benefit from extended time in school.

It’s crazy that students in successful programs like KIPP Ujima have to suffer to meet the rules of a collective bargaining agreement for a giant school system, a collective bargaining agreement that only sees a “one-size-fits-all” solution for teachers and education programs.  Maryland’s charter school law states it’s purpose is to develop “innovative learning opportunities and creative educational approaches.”  When charter schools are forced to follow union rules and not able to negotiate their own agreements, they are forced to scale down innovative ideas, like extended school days and Saturday classes. 
 
Both the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post agree:  don’t try to fix what is already working.  Everyone interested in continuing the successes in Baltimore needs to work to change Maryland’s charter law, and make the path of education reform as bright and clear as the students that walk through KIPP Ujima Village Academy’s doors each day.