RE: “Legislature should give families more school options.” – Press Register, March 16, 2012
I ask that the Press-Register, our Legislators, our Governor, and any other person advocating charter schools to slow down and think this through.
Charter schools are touted as a better alternative to public schools because they have fewer regulations, restraints, and governmental intrusions into their operations. These new charter characteristics, plus creating a school not managed by a local board, will allow the school to function without stifling encumbrances.
Well, local school boards did not create the regulations, restraints, and intrusions into the classrooms that are so contrary to common sense. Both the federal government and the state government are the creators of ineffective, slow moving, and failing schools here in Alabama and across the country. If school boards could function as they were intended, the number of failing schools in Alabama would plummet.
Additionally, the proposed bill is being highly touted because it has an embedded opportunity for public schools to apply for regulatory waivers. But if the bill supporters have already identified the egregious regulations to be eliminated for charter schools, then why not remove the same regulations for public schools, rather than creating one more bureaucratic, required state process in order to be able to run a school intelligently?
Two things have happened in Alabama that provide lots of potential for achieving world-class schools. First, there was the passage of the Students First Act last year, an initiative led and supported by our local delegation. They should receive applause from all of us. Second, the selection of Dr. Tommy Bice as the new State Superintendent of Schools has already begun to have major positive impact, as he has a vision and operates with common sense.
Charter schools are a fad, cloaked in a mantle of false adoration. There is no substantive data that gives any assurance that a charter will be better than your own public school. The only assurance is that a charter will steal funds from Alabama’s already underfunded public schools.
I challenge our legislature to halt the process of trying to create something that will keep us up with the “Joneses,” and take the meaningful step to return more authority to local boards and our exceptional teachers. Short of that, wipe away the regulatory barriers and give us the latitude to make good decisions in how we operate, and my teachers will out-educate their teachers any day of the week.
Alan T. Lee, Ph. D.
Superintendent
Baldwin County Public Schools
