The Value of Bi-Partisan Support for School Choice

This post is part one in a series of three posts on school choice focusing on value: the value in true bi-partisan support of an issue, the inherent value in choice, and the ultimate value in education.  Check back on 9 & 23 September for parts 2 & 3, respectively.

In politics, there are two phrases we hear often: “bi-partisan support” and “it’s for the kids!”

Often these are barely lip service, trying to spin focus on an issue that generally has neither real bi-partisan support nor any real effect on children, but on one issue in particular, both couldn’t be more true.  School choice is an issue that transcends party lines and truly is for the kids.

While some on the left would focus in the “village” they claim is needed to raise children, and some on the right would focus myopically on which specific “choice” is best, a band of parents, school board members, and state legislators are setting aside other differences to increase opportunities for all children.

At the Denver Amplify School Choice Conference in August 2016, a panel discussion between Dr. John Evans (former Republican State Board of Education At-Large member and State Senator) and Rep. Angela Williams (Democrat) shared their perspectives on the truly bi-partisan support for school choice in Colorado and nationwide.

Rep. Williams said that the purpose of the legislature getting involved in school choice is to enhance student achievement, allow for innovative methods of instruction, provide resources for local school governance, and provide parents with alternatives.

Rep. Williams highlighted the legislature's role in education as providing funding, ensuring that all students receive a high-quality education, and ensure that ALL students have equal opportunity to attend high-quality schools no matter their zip code.

Rep. Williams was co-sponsor of three bills to make headway in leveling the playing field for charter schools in 2016: SB16-187 and SB16-188 (both of which died in committee, but were largely incorporated into the School Finance Act, HB16-1422, which passed), and SB16-208, which became law.

In July 2016, the NAACP proposed a resolution at their national convention that was later adopted by their Board calling for a “moratorium on charter schools”.  Rep. Williams, a member of the NAACP responded to this proposal with a forceful proclamation: “I’m not going to stand by and send our children to failing schools.”

Highlighting another area where bi-partisan support of charter schools has made a significant impact, Dan Schaller of the Colorado League of Charter Schools gave a presentation highlighting the success of charter schools in traditionally liberal Denver, Colorado; focusing in particular on the largely cordial relationships between charter schools and the Denver Public Schools Board.

A lot has changed over the past decade for Denver Public Schools (DPS), in large part thanks to the increase of charter schools and the unique relationship they enjoy with the school board in Denver.

Issue	Mid-2000s	2016
Academic Growth	Lowest rate of AG in all mid-to-large CO School Districts	Highest rate of AG in mid-to-large CO School Districts since 2012
Growth Rate	Out of 98,000 available seats, 31,000 (32%) were empty
Timely Graduation	Less than 39% of students graduate high school on time	65% of students graduate high school on time (166% increase)
In-District Schooling	Just under 25% of students left for other districts or options, costing DPS $125m annually	Fastest growing urban school district in the country
Grade Level Performance	33% in 2006	48% in Fall 2014
Additional Issues	DPS now… ·    …sends 48% of their high school graduates to college ·    …has 1 in 7 low-income students go to college (state average is 1 in 20) ·    …has closed or replaced 48 underperforming schools and opened 70 new schools (mostly charter) since 2005 ·    …has a SchoolChoice universal enrollment system which makes it easier for parents to choose their child’s school (in or out of district) ·    …sends over 18% of their students to charter schools

In Denver, bi-partisan support was critical to these successes.  A message-neutral tone, such as focusing on quality schools rather than the type of school, creating results and not being about choice just for choice’s sake, and focusing on the results for the kids being the ultimate goal, not how or where the results were created, built the foundation for progress in a traditionally hostile environment.  Additionally, a focus on pacing progress (sometimes slower to gain in the long run), creating equity (rather than equality), and pursuing autonomy and accountability within the district breeds trust and builds valuable relationships.

Without bi-partisan support, kids will continue to lose.  Focusing on the value of gaining and sustaining that support is key to providing quality education to all children and options to all parents.  It is, after all, for the kids.

Opinion: Education Reform Strategy 101

As the dust settles on the last year and last election cycle, it's time to start thinking about school board elections once again in Colorado.  It has been my position for years that unless and until limited government advocates champion education (and school choice), no other progress... so to speak... will be made in the political arena.

At a Denver school choice conference in December 2014, hosted by the Franklin Center, outgoing State Board of Education Chairman Paul Lundeen presented on how he saw the conversation about education as being framed like a Shakespearean play:

• Act One: Exposition, protagonist introduced, dramatic premise
• Act Two: CRISIS, obstacle, protagonist blocked from fulfilling need
• Act Three: Resolution, climax, denouement

State Representative Lundeen concluded by observing that choice advocates have been trapped in the second act for decades--and for real reform, we need to bring the conversation back to the first act.

2015 provides a perfect opportunity to get back to the basics of education, and education reform, with dozens of school board elections across the state of Colorado.  We don't need to make it a conversation piece; it already will be one.  We merely need to seize the opportunity to drive the conversation in the correct direction.

The most basic principle of all, one that needs public attention, is that the primary benefit of education is personal, and only secondarily is it a public benefit.  In other words, Education is primarily a private good.

The form education takes is driven by the fundamental end of education: is it a societal good, or a private, personal benefit?

If you asked the "man on the street" today, the focus is on the public (or societal) good of education, not the personal.  Our mission in Colorado's 2015 school board elections must be to shift that focus.

Right now, education is approached systematically, with forms and formulas in cookie-cutter schools to churn out the masses, rather than creating individual learning centers focused on the unique needs and achievements of each student.

As conservatives, we tend to focus on the first five of WWWWHW: the who, the what, the when, the where, and the how.  We are logistically driven, and that is shown in our concern for fixing the mechanics of the problem.  But that forgets the heart of the matter--literally; the more emotionally driven component of why.

We need to change our approach to school choice messaging by leading with the why: education should be personal, meaningful, and practical.  If you, as a student, put more into it, you will get more out.  That is our message box.

Education reform is much broader than just school choice (i.e. it exists outside the school choice box), but school choice is fundamental to education reform.  To obtain true, sweeping reform of education requires the realization that a cookie-cutter approach to education fails far too many of our students, and that choice is the first step down the road of personalized and individualized learning.

Perhaps ideally, education will once again be a private institution, but that idea is likely decades away (if it comes to fruition at all).  That is why school board elections are as important, if not more so, than funding private education--because it is our duty to view public and private education as parallel paths, and that we can both work to replace the status quo, failing system while protecting the most vulnerable still in it.

National School Choice Week approaches quickly--at the end of this month (January).  Let's make it our mission in Colorado to not just highlight the successes of school choice (of which I am a product), but change the conversation to make individualized, personal education a reality for all Colorado students.  That reality starts by changing the conversation as we approach November's ballot box.

#schoolchoiceworks: My School Choice Story

National School Choice Week is coming up at the end of January 2014.  In anticipation of that, I thought it might be interesting to write up my own story, and hear about yours.

If you know me, chances are you've heard me talk about my education--it was a significant part of what made me who I am today, and influenced me for the better.

I went to a Lutheran preschool, a private kindergarten, public school for most of first grade, and was homeschooled until I graduated high school.

I suppose you could call me "gifted" or "advanced" (for example, after the first few weeks in first grade, they wanted to move me to the fourth grade), but I think that was more because of what was cultivated in me from an early age than any particular special ability of my own.  I think we would see a significant increase in "gifted" students if they, too, had the opportunities and parental involvement I had from a young age.

I had already been reading long before first grade and taught myself cursive while my peers were learning print--again, this is less a reflection on any particular advanced ability and more a reflection of very important traits my parents (particularly my mother) taught me from early on: to be a self-starter; to be self-sufficient, and most importantly, to have a passion for learning.  That is key: the passion for learning.  It is something that is still all-consuming today.

Because of my "advanced" level, I was asked to do my school work behind the teacher's desk, and (because I have an innate, and often obnoxious, need to be first at everything) I would help the rest of the class with their work after I finished my own.  Already, I had been taught to self-direct my learning to a large degree at six years old (even before that).  My mother's philosophy of education was already prevalent: allow kids to think, teach them to question, and teach them to communicate.

My mother learned of homeschooling at some point in the year or so prior to my removal from public school (as I recall), and the final straw was a gym teacher who liked to yell profanities at the first graders and prevent us from taking water breaks--I should mention I lived in Arizona at the time, and gym was almost always out of doors.  My mom pulled me out of school a few weeks before the end of the school year and the rest, as they say, was history.

Homeschooling not only afforded me a quality education that met my needs--it removed a large part of my competitive nature since I had no one with which to compete (I still have it, although significantly tempered from what I remember) and gave me the chance to focus on passions such as politics, Ancient Greece, nuclear science, and British Literature--it gave me significant opportunities I would never have gotten in any other scholastic setting, such as the ability to spend one day a week at the Colorado State Capitol as an intern during my four high school years.

Right after high school, I spent time as the Executive Director of the Colorado HEARTH Fund, helping to support candidates for state legislative seats who believed in choice in education, and to involve homeschoolers in particular in the political process.  

But for all my love of homeschooling, and for all the wonderful things I know it afforded me, I believe very strongly that school choice is vital: there are certainly a number of individuals who either should not be homeschool parents or who would not benefit from that environment as children.  I believe all children should have the opportunity I had: the best education possible for me.  I have continued to fight for that, from candidates I support to bills I testify on, and writing about it now.

The result's of Colorado's 2013 election were promising--strong school choice and pro-reform candidates elected across the board, from the liberal bastion of Denver Public Schools to the largest school district in Colorado (Jefferson County Public Schools)--an area that rejected a similar slate only two years prior.  The foothold in Douglas County School District remained intact: a 7-0 reform board who kicked out the teacher's union, created a voucher program, and brought in an excellent new superintendent.  This was the story in district after district across the state, just a year after Obama took our 9 electoral votes.  The same state that ushered in Democrat majorities voted down a $1 billion tax increase nearly 2-1.  There is a lesson to be learned from this:

School choice is not a partisan issue, and people know that just throwing more money at the problem is not the right solution!

Every parent wants what is best for their child.  It is my job--your job--our job to ensure that opportunity is there.  I have an eight month old son.  I want for him to have the same chance I did, to get the best education possible for him.  That's my reason to fight for school choice--because it works, because I am the product of it, and because I want it to continue to work for my son and for all children.  What's your reason?