Secretary Duncan Makes Measurable Progress On Charter Schools

Secretary of Education Duncan is proving more adept at lifting caps on Charter schools than many people, myself included, believed possible.

August 13, 2009 Wall Street Journal article, Expanding The Charter Option, illustrates the success Secretary Duncan has had so far - and the positive benefit for children trapped in low performing schools, including in my hometown of Memphis:

"I needed to get my child into a school where there were high expectations," Ms. Byrd says. A charter school had recently opened nearby, but the 34-year-old single mom hesitated over getting an application since Tennessee law required her son to either be considered low-performing—which he wasn't—or attend a low-performing school—which he didn't—in order to get in. But all that changed a few weeks ago, when the state enacted a law for charter schools to also include students from low-income families."

It is clear Secretary Duncan is on the right track because the most powerful unions in America - The 3.1 million member TEACHERS UNION (NEA) and the 1 million member other TEACHERS UNION (AFT) aren't happy:

"Teachers' unions want to see the $4 billion more squarely focused on traditional public schools. In a statement, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said that "the vast majority of kids—90%—attend traditional public schools and that is why we have proposed the lion's share of Race to the Top money be directed to helping improve those public schools."

Sadly, for Ms. Weingarten, Secretary Duncan realizes the public schools have had 30 years to improve and have demonstrated their inability.

Stay tuned, though, the TEACHERS UNIONS combined have hundreds of millions of dollars and a lot of power and they will use both to stop Secretary Duncan.

Comments

[greennetizen]

I'm a teacher and I am happy to see your project. It highlights many of my frustrations as a teacher. But you make it sound like the teachers are the problem in this little clip.

We are just as frustrated as you are about the situation, but please, don't blame us. If I could wave a magic wand I would change many of the things that you are asking us to change.

Try listening to the teachers and hear what they have to say. We are on the same side as you are. We know that education needs to change, but you can not put it all on us.

Parents, administrators, bureaucrats, the media, students, politicians bare some of the responsibilities. Please stop attacking us!

BOB COMPTON COMMENTS:

I don't mean to imply that teachers are the sole "problem" of declining American education, although I do believe that Teacher's Unions are a primary contributor to the decline. So, teachers that refuse to join the union, I applaud.

My issue with the Teacher's Union can be summed up in the immortal words of Teacher's Union President Albert Shanker (1985) - "The day children start paying dues is the day I'll care about their interests."

To bring American schools to world leadership, again, we need only do a few simple things:

1- raise our 5-12th grade curriculum in math, physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, world history, English grammar, English literature, art, geography, foreign language (Mandarin, Arabic, Farsi or Spanish) and music to equal the best in the world,

2- hire teachers from 5-12th grade with Bachelors and Masters degrees in the subject they teach,

3- Measure students, teachers and schools on the same tests - AP tests primarily - so consequences are aligned.

Sadly, the Teachers' Unions, the Colleges of Education and the Educational Bureaucrats (60,000 at the Federal level alone) will block these reforms.