Arne Duncan Talks Charters on First TV Show

This from Politics K-12:

So President Obama caused a bit of a stir when he picked a charter school for his first visit to a public school.

Now, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will use his first "Education News" TV show appearance tonight from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. to address the topic: "Charter Schools: School Reform that Works." You can watch it at very odd hours on TV on channels like The Learning Channel, or on public broadcasting stations. It looks like it's also available via webcast. The show is a longstanding Education Department initiative to communicate education information to parents...

The Department of Ed press release proclaims:

Charter schools, in particular, are increasingly appealing to parents, and for good reason. As laboratories for new and challenging educational strategies, these schools prove that breaking tradition and establishing a high bar for performance can yield extraordinary results for students. Many charter schools boast strong test scores along with impressive attendance and graduation rates, which are the result of the freedoms that these schools offer. They allow administrators the freedom to innovate, teachers the ability to be creative, parents the opportunity to be involved, and students the right to learn—creating a partnership that leads to improved achievement. Charter schools often “raise the bar”, and in turn, stimulate the entire public school system to improve.

The President’s education plan proposes to double the funding for the federal Charter Schools Program with the goal of increasing the number of successful charter schools among states that are committed to improving academic accountability.

Today, over 4,500 charter schools serve over 1.3 million children in 40 states and D.C.

That's all well and good. We certainly ought to replicate successful programs to the extend that's possible. But that's likely to be a challenge charter schools can only satisfy in certain places - like public schools.

The biggest obstacle facing charter school establishment in small cities and rural locations is likely to be difficulty obtaining suitable facilities. And if that continues to be the barrier it now seems to be, charters will only perpetuate one of our historical problems - good schools in some places; bad schools in others. But it could, possibly, maybe, provide some new opportunities in inner city situations where available buildings are less scarce.

Susan Weston shared a pet formulation of hers with me recently, but I can't remember it. It had something to do with the number of waitresses in a town (or something); divided by four (or something); equaling the number of entrepreneurs available (or something) who might be willing and able to build a school. Perhaps she'll share her theory with us.

Duncan sees the stimulus bill as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put lasting reforms in place.

"It's also an opportunity to redefine the federal role in education, something we're thinking a whole lot about," Duncan said recently. "How can we move from being (about) compliance with bureaucracy to really the engine of innovation and
change?"

The bill includes a $5 billion fund for innovations, an amount that might not seem like much, considering the bill's $787 billion price tag. But it is massive compared with the $16 million in discretionary money Duncan's predecessors got each year for their own priorities.