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Glimpses of the future?
The new K-12 education paradigm in Indianapolis—intended to be student-centered and helping the charter, district, and private school sectors work together—is only a few weeks old, but we’ve already got a couple of glimpses of what its future may hold. First up is The 74’s Patrick O’Donnell, whose coverage lays out a number of potential landmines that the city’s new Public Education Corporation must avoid. Here’s hoping these leaders are up to the task. Second is Chalkbeat, informing us that Indianapolis Public Schools’ first move in the new paradigm is to begin the process to become a charter school authorizer themselves, a move which elected members called a “step toward unparalleled local accountability”.
A win?
Staff members at three charter schools in Arizona are celebrating this week after a National Labor Relations Board ruling cleared the way for them to unionize. “In unionizing, we’re hoping to build a stronger and more resilient community among staff,” says Haley Odom-Mackey, an algebra teacher at City High School in Tucson. Contract negotiations will start soon. “We are saving our concrete asks for the bargaining table,” Odom-Mackey adds. “But forming our union gives us more safety to be able to continue doing our jobs in the immediate future.”
A battle forming?
The elected school board of Jackson-Madison County School District in Tennessee voted last week to move forward on the application for Union Academy, a proposed charter school that would, if approved at the state level, be run by a private Christian college in the town of Jackson. As with Catholic- and Jewish-affiliated charter school proposals in other states, there will be pushback against this potential precedent.
Standing pat, no matter the cost?
Minneapolis Public Schools has a longstanding rule that forbids the sale of closed school buildings to charter or private schools, citing the potential deleterious effects of competition. This has left the district with an expensive portfolio of underutilized (but still open) and closed (but not sold to anyone) buildings still on their books. But Minneapolis is not immune to the same financial pressures facing shrinking districts across the country. Because of their looming budget problems (despite what they say publicly, the math doesn’t lie), calls are growing to sell off some or all of their costly white elephants to anyone who will buy them.
Who’s the bigger threat?
An interesting runoff election is on the calendar for May 26 in Texas, where two Democrats are vying for the District 5 seat on the State Board of Education. By most measures, they seem very similar. How will voters decide? Apparently the biggest difference between the two is which boogieman—charters or vouchers—each believes is the biggest threat to traditional district schools in the state, according to this coverage from the Austin Chronicle. Easy peasy.
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