Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Have Virginia Republican Elected Officials Given Up on Charter Schools?

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sherlockj
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by James C. Sherlock

Two things we know:

  1.  There is absolutely no question that charter schools run by successful charter management organizations (CMOS) are proven to be the most efficient and effective American public schools in instructing poor urban kids.
  2. There is also no question that many Democratic politicians, having eliminated any doubt about their hierarchy of values, have thrown those kids off the lifeboat in favor of the teachers’ unions.

But where, exactly, are Virginia Republican elected officials on this issue?

The only school choice bill I have seen from Republicans introduced in the General Assembly this session, education savings accounts, does not appear to help poor kids at all.

What is the thinking there?

If Democrats representing those districts — and they are all Democrats — are going to vote against their own kids in deference to the teachers’ unions (and they have in the past) why bother?

If that is it, I urge Republican elected officials to re-think this.

Doing the right thing for its own sake is worth the effort.

And this is the right thing to do.

Start with an amendment to the Virginia constitution that eliminates local school board approval and oversight of charter schools.  Give approval and oversight to a state charter board.

That will be a necessary first step because most urban school boards in Virginia and nationwide are operated for the benefit of teachers and administrators exclusively.

Please get started.

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53 responses to “Have Virginia Republican Elected Officials Given Up on Charter Schools?”

  1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    “Virginia has eight charter schools in the entire Commonwealth, Maryland has 140, North Carolina has 190, we have eight. On day one we’re going to launch 20 innovation charter schools” as a”down payment to close that gap over four years”.

    Glenn Youngkin, Nov. 2, 2021

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2021/11/02/wake-up-virginia-here-we-come-youngkin-fires-up-loudoun-county-in-final-rally-n2598410

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/new-lab-schools-could-open-by-fall-2023-under-youngkin-backed-plan/

      Well, I think that morphed into the college-affiliated innovation schools, or whatever they are called. So not ignored and by that report linked above, may open this year. The emphasis for this short session does seem to be creating the Education Success Accounts that divert some of the state funding stream, and possible amendments to the Educational Improvement Scholarship Tax Credits. Both are heavy lifts by themselves.

      “….most urban school boards in Virginia and nationwide are operated for the benefit of teachers and administrators exclusively.” Not something I’d include in my rhetoric in a serious effort to advocate change. I agree that competition will put pressure for public schools to improve, but too many just want to leave them to founder.

      1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
        James C. Sherlock

        I’m old and tired of pushing this boulder up hill. If they want someone to make them feel good about urban schools, I’m not the guy.

      2. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        “… but too many just want to leave them to founder.”

        Not the least of which are those who would push for charter schools. Kinda like Democrats supporting MAGA candidates in a Republican primary for a competitive district.

        1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
          James C. Sherlock

          So, in Nancy’s world, there are not several million minority American kids whose parents put them in charters when offered that lifeline? There are not several hundred thousand others on waitlists?

          Enjoy your dangerously insular world.

          No charters needed in your world where poor minority kids are never buried in hopelessly violent, undisciplined schools with no real chance at an education. Good to know.

          Certainly never happens in Virginia schools, at least not on MSNBC and Blue Virginia, right?

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            https://www.wunc.org/education/2022-05-06/takeaways-latest-annual-report-charter-schools-north-carolina

            Just another industry.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            We’re asking for you to show where there are urban charters that succeed with those “poor” at-risk kids.

            All you can talk about is teacher unions, msnbc and ideological talking points and hand waving.

          3. CJBova Avatar
            CJBova

            Larry, here’s a 2018 report from Princeton University: https://futureofchildren.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf2411/files/resource-links/charter_schools_compiled.pdf
            These two quotes answer some of your repeated and incorrect statements: “Charters are held accountable by their authorizers (state education agencies or organizations like colleges, special boards, or even school districts, depending on the state), who can revoke these schools’ charters if they don’t meet state standards. Charter schools are free and open to the public.”

            “Forty-three states and Washington, DC, now have laws that permit the operation of charter schools, and around 7,000 charter schools now serve more than 5 percent of students in the United States.1 They’ve grown steadily over the past 10 years, adding about 300 or 400 schools each year.”

            And a third fact:

            Per NCES, in 2019, charter school attendance increased to 3.4 million. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=30

          4. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Carol:

            where is the demographic evidence that demonstrate that Charters do prmarily help urban poor/minorities?

            where is the evidence that they are academically successful in doing that?

            How about providing those links ?

          5. CJBova Avatar
            CJBova

            You can’t have read all the links I gave you and ask that. There are many more links online. Either add new information or new evidence in favor of your disbelief, or let your comments stand as they are.

          6. CJBova Avatar
            CJBova

            One more link: https://data.publiccharters.org/digest/charter-school-data-digest/who-attends-charter-schools/
            “Charter schools historically serve proportionately more students of color and more students from low-income communities than district schools. In the past 16 years (2005-06 to 2020-21 school years), charter schools have consistently had a higher portion of students of color compared to district schools. According to the most recently available data (2020-21 school year), 69.3% of charter school students, versus 53.4% of district school students, were students of color. Charter schools have also consistently served a higher percentage of students who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch (FRPL) from the 2005-06 to 2020-21 school years. In the 2020-21 school year, 59.6% of charter school students received FRPL compared to 53% in district schools.”

          7. Bob X from Texas Avatar
            Bob X from Texas

            The question to ask is why black student’s scholastic aptitude, achievement, and discipline that was rising in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s started falling in the 1960s and continues.

          8. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Do you mean when they were going to segregated schools and/or no school in massive resistance Virginia?

            Do you have data that shows that black folks had high scholastic achievement in 1940-1950?

          9. Bob X from Texas Avatar
            Bob X from Texas

            Check out :
            https://www.hoover.org/research/discrimination-an…
            WebMar 14, 2018 · Discrimination And Disparities With Thomas Sowell. Hoover Institution’s Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow Thomas Sowell discusses his new book, …

          10. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/537795c515e6637f1b23d7023f120fd5cc6c45b6c23d1d7dfafd830a816e3ba6.jpg

          11. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            Larry, look it up. You ask these same wearying questions every time I write about charters and learn nothing.

            No part of my job description involves answering you, Larry. You will never again get one from me. I will recommend to Carol she ignore you as well.

      3. killerhertz Avatar
        killerhertz

        They need to target younger ages. Innovation schools don’t do that.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      The elephant has its trunk under the tent in NC and MD. Creation Science is on the march. All that juicy public funding.

    3. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      The elephant has its trunk under the tent in NC and MD. Creation Science is on the march. All that juicy public funding.

      https://www.thecentersquare.com/north_carolina/religious-organizations-join-north-carolina-charter-school-in-appeal-to-u-s-supreme-court/article_0eca8b36-562f-11ed-9625-9beb70979959.html

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        In neither case, does Sherlock or others claim these schools are urban charters nor talk about their performance.

        They’re just “there”- proof enough!

        pushing that rock uphill is for “effect”.

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          The majority of Charter schools in NC don’t serve economically disadvantaged nor minorities. They are so white kids can have the private academy experience. Hide from the world. It’ll find you anyway.

          1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            Success Academy for one, as you well know. KIPP is another. You have been asking and people answering them for years without effect.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            ” A research report published in March 2005 by the Economic Policy Institute in book form as The Charter School Dust-Up: Examining the Evidence on Enrollment and Achievement,[21] however, described the degree to which KIPP’s admission process selects for likely high achievers:

            KIPP students, as a group, enter KIPP with substantially higher achievement than the typical achievement of schools from which they came. … [T]eachers told us either that they referred students who were more able than their peers, or that the most motivated and educationally sophisticated parents were those likely to take the initiative to pull children out of the public school and enroll in KIPP at the end of fourth grade. Today, KIPP Schools have added Pre-K through 12th grade schools. A clear pattern to emerge from these interviews was that almost always it was students with unusually supportive parents or intact families who were referred to KIPP and completed the enrollment process.”

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIPP

            Are these the “poor kids” that you refer to that public schools are “failing”?

          3. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            ” A research report published in March 2005 by the Economic Policy Institute in book form as The Charter School Dust-Up: Examining the Evidence on Enrollment and Achievement,[21] however, described the degree to which KIPP’s admission process selects for likely high achievers:

            KIPP students, as a group, enter KIPP with substantially higher achievement than the typical achievement of schools from which they came. … [T]eachers told us either that they referred students who were more able than their peers, or that the most motivated and educationally sophisticated parents were those likely to take the initiative to pull children out of the public school and enroll in KIPP at the end of fourth grade. Today, KIPP Schools have added Pre-K through 12th grade schools. A clear pattern to emerge from these interviews was that almost always it was students with unusually supportive parents or intact families who were referred to KIPP and completed the enrollment process.”

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIPP

            Are these the “poor kids” that you refer to that public schools are “failing”?

          4. sherlockj Avatar
            sherlockj

            2005? Best you could do?

  2. Carter Melton Avatar
    Carter Melton

    I would love to see an inner city charter school that used the Fork Union single subject academic model. Intuitively I would bet the egg and butter money on astounding success.

    1. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
      James Wyatt Whitehead

      It would take a lot of guts to do the one subject plan. Everything about the school day would have to be reimagined. Education as an institution is built to preserve itself not to reinvent itself. Under the right leadership, in 3 to 5 years you would have a mountain of measurable data to back up the success.

  3. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    “Two things I believe:”

    Fixed it for you…

    1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      Which of us is advocating for better educations and better futures for poor minority children, and which of us is satisfied with the educations they are getting? Thank you.

  4. Kathleen Smith Avatar
    Kathleen Smith

    An amendment to the constitution requires the stars to be aligned in both the house and senate during two Governor’s terms. The probability of that is pretty low.

    1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      Governor in office three more years. House is Republican. The Senate will be revised in November. Joe Morrisey may vote for it.

      1. Kathleen Smith Avatar
        Kathleen Smith

        After the second general assembly of the Govs term, he becomes a lame duck. This is unfortunate. These four year terms stop everything. This same issue came up under McDonell’s term. I this HB 1508 is his attempt to ensure it gets passed during his Legislation. It is a very fair bill. Accountability is not mentioned, unless you count the SBs have to approve continuation. I would change that to uncle the school is accredited through VCPE and students take SOL assessments. Federal dollars should also follow the kid

  5. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    re: ” There is absolutely no question that charter schools run by successful charter management organizations (CMOS) are proven to be the most efficient and effective American public schools in instructing poor urban kids.”

    Actually with the exception of Success Academies , I don’t think we know much at all about other Charters, what demographic they cater to nor results.

    The claim over and over is that they are “better”. Trying to find definitive evidence that they really are – is not so easy.

    If a Charter is not actually limiting it’s enrollment to at risk kids, they can become de-facto private academies that actually cater to the high end students, not the at risk.

    I’m not seen a prima facie case presented that Charter Schools (besides Success in NYC) actually do succeed at
    educating at risk kids.

    I think until that case is presented with evidence and convinces folks that it’s not just a conservative anti-public-school , anti teacher union thing, they see it for what it is instead.

    1. CJBova Avatar
      CJBova

      Try looking beyond your own thoughts. Here, for example: https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/why-urban-charters-outperform-traditional-public-schools

    2. CJBova Avatar
      CJBova

      New twist on an old aphorism: You can lead a person to facts, but you can’t make them think.

  6. LesGabriel Avatar
    LesGabriel

    Amending the Constitution may well prove to be a dead end. But there are 130+ School Boards in the State. Surely not every one of them is beholden to Teacher organizations. Do we as voters know which School Board candidates are open to considering Charter School applications and which would dismiss them out of hand?

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I agree and 3/4 of them are rural and largely Conservative. It’s hard to buy the big bad teacher unions story.

      It almost sounds like the real goal of Conservatives is to force charters on urban schools instead of promoting them in non-urban locales.

      It boils down to what Conservatives are really after and is it anything beyond anti-public school culture wars?

      1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
        James C. Sherlock

        Read what you just wrote. It is counterfactual nonsense beginning to end. I think you know better than all of those assertions.

        Give yourself a few minutes before you post and you will delete a lot of things like this.

        This article was 100% about urban school districts that kill any chance that most of their students can have happy productive lives.

        The crying need in this state is for urban charters. Just look at the statistics on educational achievement. It is the urban school systems that have failed.

        That assertion is where the facts take us, Larry. Do you want to help those poor minority kids or not? If you do, offer a better solution than I did. A more proven one.

        There isn’t any. Good night.

        1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
          Eric the half a troll

          If there is a crying need for charter schools anywhere then the people crying for the charter schools will elect a school board that will promote charter schools in the district. They already have the authority to do so.

          1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            So you believe in letting kids suffer if their local elders vote for them to suffer. Got it.

          2. Not Today Avatar
            Not Today

            Local control. It’s a beautiful thing.

          3. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            It is much easier to hold elected officials accountable if you see them regularly at the grocery store. The parents of those kids have much more leverage over their own school board than they would over legislators that do not even represent them in Richmond.

    2. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I would like to see advocacy for Charters in Virginia that limit/restrict enrollment ONLY for kids that are “at risk” and not on grade level.

      Start small, target the kids that are in need of something the public schools are not providing and build on it, get support from constituencies and parents that are NOT partisan conservatives. Win them over by walking the walk on the issue.

      1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
        James C. Sherlock

        Give us an example of that approach from the real world. Other than stopping social promotions.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          I think you’re the one making the assertions about Charters and their ability to address the issues. You talk incessantly about the “poor kids”. If you’re gonna proclaim the success of charters, how about providing some evidence that there actually are charters that actually to focus on at-risk kids in urban areas and succeed – beyond just Success Academies. There are a lot of other charters across the country. Show the urban ones that focus on at-risk kids and their “success” in your advocacy. Do more than unsubstantiated assertions.

          1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            You simply refuse to accept the evidence that I for years and nor Carol have given you. So move on.

    3. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      I specifically referred to urban school boards and schools filled with poor minority kids given little chance at happy, productive lives. Just look at every measurement of academic achievement.

      Look at how few of them can read and multiply in the fourth grade. It represents the organized abandonment of a generation of poor minority kids.

      The fact that their school boards are populated by people from their neighborhoods doesn’t make it OK.

      1. LesGabriel Avatar
        LesGabriel

        School Districts and School Boards in Virginia range from the very rural to very urban, with a lot of in-betweens. If some of the mid-size Counties and Cities would start the process and have success, it would increase the pressure on others to follow suit.

        1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
          James C. Sherlock

          I am working on that exact thing.

  7. CJBova Avatar
    CJBova

    [Moved to correct post]

    Nancy Naive 15 minutes ago
    “5. A grant program is helping charter schools become more diverse.

    With the help of a $36.6 million Public Charter Schools Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is in its fourth year of implementing a grant program
    to help charter schools become more diverse.

    The ACCESS grant program has distributed sub-grants to 61 charter schools in 28 counties to help them better serve economically disadvantaged students. The
    program requires recipients to use weighted lotteries to give an admissions advantage to students who are economically disadvantaged. As a result, more charter schools in North Carolina now use weighted lotteries.”

    DE&I?

    1. killerhertz Avatar
      killerhertz

      This is why the government shouldn’t be involved in education period.

  8. Not Today Avatar
    Not Today

    I sure hope so. Charters don’t work.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/08/07/report-are-charter-schools-a-big-risk-for-families/?sh=67e6387b4986

    Neither do vouchers.

    https://www.brookings.edu/research/more-findings-about-school-vouchers-and-test-scores-and-they-are-still-negative/?amp

  9. Bob X from Texas Avatar
    Bob X from Texas

    Teachers and school administrators hate being graded worse than the students hate being graded.
    However, competition is good for schools and teachers. Competition will drive improvements when rewarded.

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