Charter Schools

This week, May 4 through May 10, is National Charter Schools Week. Charter schools, charter school authorizers and charter school associations across the country are holding events to raise awareness about charter schooling and celebrate the successes and growth of the nation’s 4,300 charter schools, as well as the 1.2 million students they serve.

We’ve written previously about the often overlooked potential charter schools have to improve early education. Charter schools are independent public schools of choice that are publicly funded, free of charge to students, and accountable to the public, but operated by organizations other than local school districts. Many charter schools are already delivering high-quality early elementary school programs, and are a valuable source of potential capacity as states seek to expand pre-kindergarten programs.

We've spent a lot of time over the past two weeks talking about the Democratic presidential candidates' early education agendas, so today we're going to devote some time to the Republican candidate, Senator John McCain. So far, McCain hasn't said much about education issues, and hasn't offered any sort of education policy agenda. That's hardly surprising, as McCain has never been particularly involved on education issues in the Senate, and education issues were not a major issue in the Republican primary campaign. Richard Whitmire reports that McCain's advisors are about to start unrolling a series of education proposals-but predicts they won't include a significant early education component.

There are lots of good reasons for McCain's advisors to incorporate an early education component in the education agenda they're formulating. For starters, it would be counterintuitive, and it would also help cast a more positive light on some of the areas where McCain is weaker.

Further, it's probably easier for Republican politicians to support innovative ideas on early education than on K-12 reform right now. Conventional wisdom within the pundit class holds that teachers unions make it difficult for Democrats to advance compelling school reform ideas. But the politics of school reform are equally fraught for many Republicans. The conservative base loathes NCLB with a passion to rival that of the most strident teacher unionist and strongly opposes any expansion of the feds' role in schooling. Moderate Republicans know that the suburban parents they represent aren't thrilled by NCLB or reforms that might shake up a status quo that works pretty well for them now. And, as the Sol Stern controversy demonstrates, the conservative constituency for education reform is increasingly divided between choice-niks who think vouchers are the only answer, and devotees of curricular reform. In other words, for a politician who's never evinced a particular passion for education issues, the waters can't look too appealing in K-12 reform.

A growing number of charter schools across the country are offering high-quality pre-k programs, and charter schools can be a valuable source of pre-k capacity as states expand publicly funded pre-k. But in too many states a variety of policy barriers prevent charter schools from playing a role in state pre-k programs. In a new policy brief on the Democrats for Education Reform website, I argue that it's time to break down these barriers and build partnerships between the charter school and universal pre-k movements to support quality and alignment in early education.

Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman devoted her Huffington Post column last week to singing the praises of Excellence Charter School, an all-boys school in Brooklyn, New York that seeks to combat the high-dropout rates for African American men by providing a strong academic curriculum in an environment that supports students' social and character development. Excellence, a member of the Uncommon Schools network, currently serves 220 boys in kindergarten through fourth grade. [slideshow]

Wright Edelman is clearly impressed by the school, which she proposes replicating in thousands of urban and rural school districts nationally. She and the organization she runs have also been strong advocates for quality early education, including universal pre-k. But, ironically, the school Wright Edelman praises here is barred by law from providing the kinds of pre-k services CDF has advocated for.