It’s About Time
Charter Schools Might Begin to Breathe Again
The Backstory
I’ve been writing about the overregulation of charter schools, alongside many colleagues, for decades. While states are often guilty of having micromanaged the schools that were expressly designed to be flexible, the feds have overtime added onerous requirements that, in turn, have prodded state bureaucracies to follow suit. The result has been a dampening of the excitement and fervor that once dominated charter school culture, and save for a handful of the strongest, most expansive laws in states like Arizona, Florida and Indiana, most charter school legislation has brought on copious compliance conditions that few schools have lived without.
It’s worth your time if you’re an advocate, a charter leader or an observer to read a little history of how we got here. It’s not because of blue state or red state leadership. It actually began, believe it or not, under the George W. Bush Administration and amidst the demands of foundations like the Walton Family Foundation that charters be held more accountable. They trusted government entities to figure out what that looked like and as you’d expect, what it looked like was not outcomes but demands for more proof that a “regular” person or organization knew how to create and launch a successful school. The monies flowed to those who could do the compliance the best (or who could be the loudest advocate for “quality” charters defined by pathetic state assessments). The regulators at the state level inserted more rules, more people and more oversight over these schools of choice that without them and their misguided rules were doing fine 90% of the time. Yes, 90% success. The average failure was 10%, around which these institutions created their new charter blob. We know. We watched and counted. And just this month it was validated again - charters outperform traditional public schools by almost every measure, including the gold standard, the Nation’s Report Card. (Hat tip to Matt Ladner!)
The more the associations asked Congress for increased charter funds, the more controls that arose, and the worse the laws got. (See above PPI! Chart)
It wasn’t until Covid hit, the bureaucracy was dispersed and parents scrambled that charters began to shine again for the first time in several years. It was charter schools (and Catholics) who stepped in with innovative approaches to educating students no longer in front of them, who were willing to go to bat to reach students and families and who, as soon as it was clear it was safe, were the first to reopen. It was a pernicious silver lining and today, while many states and authorizers still wield ridiculously large axes over who gets approved, how they get funded, and who can expand charters, parents and many advocates are just not taking it anymore. They flock to strong law states - those with the As and Bs on the Parent Power! Index - and they push back more effectively today on the blob. But as long as the US Department of Education adds purse strings to a comparably small program, the less choice parents will have. So it was great to see that the Ed Department has begun…
…The Big Charter Thaw
The Department’s move last week to begin to loosen Biden era regulations on charters is a breath of fresh air, but it’s just a start.
We talked about it in 2022, when the charter movement started pushing back, though the 200,000 plus comments against the regs had very little impact. Of course, it was essentially run by AFT’s militant union boss Randi Weingarten and her comrade in crime, Becky Pringle, but they are no longer in residence at the Department, hence the new effort to reduce federal overreach.
In addition to the above, next on the agenda has to be axing the federal charter rules in their entirety and going back to the original point and text of the 1997 Public Charter School Grant program - to incentivize the creation and growth of charter schools. This should be high on incoming Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s hit list.
Innovation Requires Freedom
Making public education work better for all kids – restructuring and reforming it – was indeed the point of the charter school idea. It’s that very point that makes - or at least made - the charter movement a resounding success. That’s documented in The Path to Charter Schools, whose conclusions are as sound today as they were in 2019.
And while all choices exist today, and should continue to expand, states need to ensure charter schools are fortified and continue to grow as the next generation of public schools in America.
With the imminent changes of the federal Education Department, regardless of what the actual breakdown of federal administration looks like on paper, one thing is clear, that states are being cemented as the buck-stop when it comes to education policy in this new era.
More about that soon!
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Hope my little charter school history will help you enlighten and keep the fire under the feet of those who end up in policymaking roles. Even the best-intentioned among us make bad policy decisions when not armed with the facts.
To great education for all - Jeanne