School choice opponents urged to vote, lobby
Speakers at Thursday's rally included a former assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education and a prominent community organizer.
Watch Video of Rally for Public Schools: School choice opponents urged to vote, lobby - WDRB 41 Louisville News
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The message at Thursday’s rally hosted by Save Our Schools Kentucky was simple: Opponents of school choice in Kentucky must vote for like-minded candidates in the Nov. 6 elections and show up to the Capitol when lawmakers return to Frankfort in January.
Speakers such as Diane Ravitch, a former U.S. assistant education secretary in the early 1990s, and Jitu Brown, national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, urged the audience of 80 at Central High School to actively oppose charter schools, tuition vouchers and other forms of school choice.
They, like others who reject school choice initiatives, argued that such efforts undermine traditional public schools and don’t produce the results that proponents claim.
They also say that efforts to stymie such initiatives are working.
“I think we’re in an epic battle between David and Goliath,” Ravitch said, “and I believe … David is winning.”
Education has been a political flash point in states like Kentucky, where teachers marched on the Capitol against changes to their pensions and budget cuts in various educational programs. That prompted dozens of current and former teachers to run for seats in the General Assembly this year.
The legislature approved charter schools during the 2017 session, but lawmakers adjourned this year without passing a public funding mechanism for them, leaving charters in limbo for now.
Gay Adelmann, co-founder of Save Our Schools in Kentucky, hopes that some legislators who voted to pass the charter school law will reverse course and support bills to strike it down.
That, coupled with voting charter opponents into office, would make the law’s prospects bleak, she said.
“If we keep putting pressure on our legislators who may have been pro-charter in the past, I think they’re starting to see the light,” Adelmann said after the rally.
But Joel Adams, executive director of the Kentucky Public Charter Schools Association, says he doesn’t see legislators repealing the law after passing it less than two years ago.
“There’s a whole long-standing history of building to the point of getting people to understand why this is important, why it’s critical for a lot of students across the state of Kentucky, and that need hasn’t gone away regardless of whether Save Our Schools folks think that it has,” Adams told WDRB News.
Speakers at Thursday’s rally said school choice efforts don’t produce the results that advocates claim and that charter school operators in particular are more concerned with profits and cherry-pick students.
Ravitch said Michigan’s educational rankings have “steadily declined” since school choice initiatives became law there.
Adams, however, rejected the argument that charters don’t work as “simply not true.” Charter schools must show results or risk being shut down, he said, adding that Kentucky's law doesn't allow charters to be selective in the students they enroll.
“I think there’s a little less emphasis on the newest innovations and more focus, in many areas at least, on what really has been shown to work, and there’s a ton that has been shown to work, especially in urban environments,” Adams said.
Brown, with the Journey for Justice Alliance, said residents in other states have been successful in local efforts to boost traditional public schools.
“My point is if we work together, if we organize together, if we learn the artistic science of community organizing, we can win,” he said. “The privatizers have the money, but they don’t have the people.”
Reach reporter Kevin Wheatley at 502-585-0838 and kwheatley@wdrb.com. Follow him on Twitter @KevinWheatleyKY.
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