Many of my students and readers of this blog know that I'm an advocate for expanding school choice. After 16 years working in the trenches as a teacher and administrator in both public and private school contexts, I've become convinced that something is terribly wrong with our system when people have more choices of toothpaste at their local convenience store than in educational options for their children.
I believe real innovation, meaningful accountability, and sustainable gains in student learning will only come when we've vastly expanded the marketplace of educational choices. Many teachers and administrators fear school choice, but I'm convinced it's the pathway to greater autonomy, professionalism, and job satisfaction for educators and vastly superior learning alternatives for students and their families.
One mechanism for expanding school choice is charter schools. Kentucky remains one of only nine states that don't allow some form of charters and yesterday pro-charter advocates rallied in Frankfort to ask state legislators to make room for new educational choices in the Commonwealth. One of the organizing groups is Kentuckians Advocating for Reforms in Education (KARE), which recently launched an ad campaign promoting charter schools in the state. KARE's second television ad debuted this week:
I don't necessarily agree with some of the rhetoric of these ads. Many communities in the state have excellent public schools (as schools go). But the value of expanding school options is still very relevant and important, even in such communities.
This is National School Choice Week, and Reason Foundation education analyst Lisa Snell offers three good reasons for why school choice is on the rise:
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