What do Americans want for their schools? Choice, yes. Charters, not so much
What’s a charter school? Or the Common Core? A new poll out today suggests many Americans are unfamiliar with the hottest topics in the education world, and that they’d rather trust their local schools and teachers—not the federal government, their elected officials, or unions—to figure out what’s best for kids.
Surveys have long found that Americans strongly believe in decentralization and think the schools near their home are doing fine, while schools elsewhere in the country need help. What’s surprising in a new survey published today by 50CAN, a reform-oriented advocacy group that supports more rigorous teacher evaluations and early education, is the relatively lukewarm response to some of the most favored ideas for improving the school system among education advocates and many elected officials.For example: In theory, it seems like Americans would embrace charter schools, according to the poll, which surveyed 6,400 Americans. Seventy-three percent strongly supported “giving schools the ability to make changes without having to cut through administrative and bureaucratic red tape,” one of the main reasons charters were created in the first place.
But 44 percent of those surveyed thought charters are private schools, which they aren’t. And compared to other ideas, like giving principals more freedom, which 77 percent strongly supported, opening more charters or “using public school funding to create schools that are allowed to set their own administrative rules and explore innovative solutions,” the basic definition of a charter, had
California’s students get their day in court
From the New Teachers Project blog California students are guaranteed a quality education by the state constitution. California teachers are guaranteed a host of protections under state law. Is it possible that those guarantees sometimes conflict with one another? And if they do, what’s the solution? These questions are before a judge as we speak. The nine plaintiffs, including Beatriz Vergara, wh