Welcome
A friend of mine attended the open house at Endeavor Charter School on Saturday. Largely because of state-imposed enrollment restrictions, Endeavor had only 12 open seats … and approximately 500 applications. At the same time, apologists for the status quo complained that charter schools that do not provide transportation and food service disenfranchise an unspecified number of low-income families. Interesting contrast, eh?
Bulletin Board
- The John Locke Foundation is sponsoring a Citizen’s Constitutional Workshop on Saturday, February 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Trinity Free Will Baptist Church Auditorium in La Grange, N.C. Historian Dr. Troy Kickler and political science expert Dr. Michael Sanera will discuss "What the Founders and the State Ratification Conventions Can Teach Us Today." The cost is $7.00 per participant, lunch included. Pre-registration is strongly suggested. For more information or to sign up for the event, visit the Events section of the John Locke Foundation website.
- Join us at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 26, for the John Locke Foundation’s 21st Anniversary Celebration. We will convene at North Ridge Country Club, Raleigh, North Carolina. Our special guest will be noted journalist and author George Will. Individual tickets are $100 per person, and sponsorships and VIP tickets are available. Valet parking is included in the ticket price. Please click here for online registration and additional information.
- The North Carolina History Project would like educators and homeschool parents to submit lesson plans suitable for middle and high school courses in North Carolina history. Please provide links to NC History Project encyclopedia articles and other primary and secondary source material, if possible. Go to http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/edu_corner for further information.
- Become a member of JLF’s Freedom Clubs! We have seven regional clubs covering every part of North Carolina, so there is one near you and your like-minded conservative friends. For more information, visit https://www.johnlocke.org/support.
- Check out our research newsletter archive.
CommenTerry
Recently, long-time opponents of charter schools — the NC Association of Educators (NCAE) and the NC Schools Boards Association (NCSBA) — have decided to become concerned about the ability of low-income kids to attend charters. These special interest groups, as well as newspaper editors from The News & Observer and the Star-News, argue that charters discourage low-income families from applying to charters to obtain one of the schools’ hard-to-get seats. According to these champions of the status quo, charter schools that do not provide transportation or participate in the federal school lunch program disenfranchise families that cannot provide these services on their own.
Without a doubt, the public deserves to know how many low-income families have cited transportation and food service as reasons why they have refused to apply to a charter. Charter schools are public schools, so we should take accusations of inequitable access seriously. That said, NCAE and NCSBA leaders have advanced the claim and, therefore, have the responsibility to present evidence that this is truly a systemic problem. Charter schools have been in existence throughout North Carolina for nearly fifteen years, so there has been plenty of time to examine the problem and reach conclusions about its plausibility.
If NCAE and NCSBA researchers discover evidence of a widespread problem, the state could implement a tax credit for transportation, similar to Florida law H.B. 21. The Florida law provides tax credits for [evil] corporations that donate up to $5 million or 75 percent of their tax liability to a scholarship funding organization. The law requires these organizations to use 100 percent of the donations for the transportation, food service, or instructional materials of children who qualify for a free or reduced price lunch.
On the other hand, if researchers from these spending lobbies do not offer compelling evidence to substantiate their claims, then NCAE and NCSBA leaders should apologize to legislators, their constituencies, and the public. That said, it is hard to believe that these groups would concoct a problem just to undermine charter school legislation. Certainly, these organizations care about children too much to resort to hyperbole and political theatre.
I admire the fact that groups like the NCAE and the NCSBA, both prominent members of the Raleigh political establishment, want more low-income families to have access to charter schools. Indeed, I want families of all colors, shapes, and sizes to have reasonable access to as many high-quality charter school options as possible. The elimination of state-imposed school and enrollment caps is the first step in improving access to the state’s charter schools. Surely, these restrictions on growth have disenfranchised low-income families, particularly those who live in the northeastern region of the state, since the first charter school opened in 1997.
But choice is not an end in itself. Choice is important insofar as the school — charter, private, district, or home school alike — meets the educational needs of the child.
Random Thought
I like Bill Cosby, but I think Leonard Part 6 was one of the worst movies ever made. Here is the synopsis provided by IMDB: "The CIA asks for ex-spy Leonard’s help in stopping an evil force that is brainwashing small animals into killing people. Leonard, however, has his own problems to deal with: winning back his ex-wife." Really?
Facts and Stats
Note: Click here for a larger version of this graph.
Mailbag
I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].
Education Acronym of the Week
NCSBA — North Carolina School Boards Association
Quotes of the Week
"We don’t believe that they have showed the academic performance to warrant lifting the cap," said Leanne Winner, a lobbyist for the N.C. School Boards Association. "We just don’t think the time has come."
— Gary Robertson, "NC charter school advocates looking to allies to help remove cap," Associated Press, May 6, 2007.
Click here for the Education Update archive.
