Charter Hearing Kicks off ESEA Discussions

The House Education and Labor Committee kicked off reauthorization hearings by taking charter testimony today.  See Rep. Miller’s site for transcripts.

Charter rock star Eva Moskowitz demanded “the federal government must protect the single greatest ingredient of uccess: autonomy. The whole concept of charters is that it is a compact between the state and the operator to deliver student achievement results in exchange for freedom.”

Data maven Robin Lake spoke about charters as part of urban portfolios, “Charter schools are responsible for some of the most important school district reforms at work today. This is especially true in some major urban districts where people had largely given up hope that reforms would ever overcome decades of dismal school performance.”  She pointed to four key variables that charters add to urban portfolios: 1) talent, 2) new start opportunity, 3) proof that things can be better and 4) urgency.

Greg Richmond described authorizers as the guardrails of the sector (I think I’ve been traveling in construction zones). Like Eva, Greg stressed the autonomy for accountability trade off.  Greg urged policy makers to incorporate better authorizing into the ALL-STAR bill.  I’d stress innovative and differentiated authorizing–the sector is big enough to create task specific capacity and pathways (standard, high performance, innovation, conversion, virtual, etc).

Caprice Young, KCDL, described the important role that National Alliance and state charter associations play.  She recommended several strategies for improving federal charter funding.  I’m all in favor of reducing barriers to expansion for proven providers, but we also need to make it easier for folks to start schools–folks without a couple years and a couple hundred thousand dollars are effectively shut out of the process.  Caprice runs a great online learning company that supports some virtual charters; she could have added a plug for virtual charter.  With a push from the feds the last half a dozen hold out states would expand virtual offerings.  We’re close to the ‘good school promise’–one way or another, every student in America should have access to great schools, great courses, and great teachers regardless of where they live.

I was suprised that Eileen Ahearn from State Directors of Special Education spoke in favor of charters, “Charter schools have become an important addition to America’s public education system and many of them have successfully served students with disabilities just as many traditional public schools have done.” Thomas Hehir spoke about the under-representation of special ed students in charters.  I understand his concerns but it’s not that simple.  In general, district over-identify kids and charters under-identify kids.  The big districts with overstated SpEd enrollment use private contractors and special programs to deal with special needs, so their actual school penetration is often not that different from charters.

Charters were a great place for the committee to launch the ESEA discussion.  They were fortunate to hear from some of the best in the business.