Reading Arne Duncan tea leaves on charter schools

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by David Safier

I'm doing my best to ferret out specifics of Arne Duncan's educational directions concerning charter schools. General directions are easy. Specifics are harder to figure out.

I hear good things in a short interview the Republic's Pat Kossan had with Duncan while he was in Arizona.

Shorter Duncan:

  • We need good charters, not necessarily lots of them.
  • Close bad charters.
  • Charters need freedom with accountability.
  • Charters for the gifted and the elite are OK, but what we most need are good charters for underserved communities and disadvantaged kids.

So, when the first $14 million of fed charter school money comes into Arizona, the bulk of it should go to schools serving the student populations in greatest educational need — either existing schools with proven track records or new schools with real plans and real promise. If that doesn't happen, Arizona shouldn't get the other $40 million.

Here's an idea. Why don't the folks who have multiple charters that mainly serve gifted students open schools for underserved communities and disadvantaged kids? These people are serious about education and have excellent track records. Give them a chance to succeed with the hardest-to-reach students.

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2 thoughts on “Reading Arne Duncan tea leaves on charter schools”

  1. I’ll offer that some of the Duncan’s suggestions should be generic to all schools that accept government money (including government “public” schools)
    * We need good schools
    * Close bad schools
    * Schools need freedom with accountability.

    I don’t understand the logic that if there are good charter schools why not have lots of them.

    Of the three modified bullet points the first everybody likes “good schools, yea!”.

    The second bullet point is possible with charter schools and nearly impossible with government schools.

    The third bullet point is a prescription for the impossible. Government hands out money, makes the rules and the only person the school is accountable to is the government regulators.

    The only accountability in the whole system is the degree to which money follows students to any given school.

    http://www.schoolandstate.org/

  2. “Why don’t the folks who have multiple charters that mainly serve gifted students open schools for underserved communities and disadvantaged kids?” you ask. They are. Great Hearts has opened their first inner city school this year. It’s called Teleos and is at Jefferson and 14th St. Unlike the other GH schools, which are 6-12 or 7-12, Teleos starts in third grade. I think they were finding that kids without a strong foundation didn’t do well with the Great Books curriculum used in the upper grades.

    For more information see : http://www.greatheartsaz.org

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