Chris Rickert: Control no predictor of quality in public education
The dean of the School of Education at the state’s flagship university dismissed the notion of university-authorized charter schools this week while drawing an unusual comparison between PK-12 education and college.
“I wouldn’t want local school districts to be granting undergraduate and graduate degrees,” Julie Underwood told this newspaper when asked about a legislative proposal that would expand the ability of UW System campuses to authorize charter schools. “Similarly, I don’t think universities should authorize and manage PK-12 schools. It is not what we do best. It is not within our primary mission.”
It’s a sentiment indicative of how some education advocates can seem more interested in who controls public education than in whether it’s good for kids.
I wouldn’t want local school districts granting college degrees, either, because public schools don’t know enough college curricula to be granting them.
College education professors, though, should know more than enough about what to teach in public schools and how best to teach it. College is where public school teachers and administrators go to learn how to do their jobs, after all.
Underwood, who said she is not opposed to charter schools in general, explained her comments to me this way:
“I do believe that the officials we elect to be responsible for
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