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Magna Charters
| Article
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21922 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1993 |
2,645 Words |
| Author
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Lloyd Billingsley
Lloyd Billingsley is an author, journalist, and screenwriter.
His most recent book is From Mainline to Sideline. He is a
media fellow at Pacific Research Institute. |
When Bill and Hillary Clinton sent their daughter, Chelsea, to the prestigious Sidwell Friends School, the move raised some eyebrows. The Clintons are boosters of public schools and opponents of educational vouchers, which would allow parents to send their children to a school of their choice. Why shouldn't everyone, critics said, have the same educational options as the Clintons? In due time, they may.
According to the Progressive Policy Institute's Mandate for Change, a book praised by President Clinton, "Our public schools are failing to meet the standards of performance being set by our global competitors." By some counts, half the U.S. populace favors some kind of voucher plan.
Meanwhile, another measure largely unknown before 1993 may greatly expand educational choice and change the face of schooling across the nation.
The new concept is called "charter" schools, a choice option within the public system. In return for agreeing to be judged on performance, schools may create their own programs largely free of the regulations usually pertaining to them. California state Sen. Gary Hart calls charter schools "education outside the box" and a "license to dream".
FOLLOWING BRITAIN'S LEAD
While European nations generally allow far more educational choice than does the United States, only one foreign model is similar to the American charter idea. Britain's 1988 Education Reform Act frees schools to "opt out" of its rather rigid system.
Desmond Nuttall, director of research for the Inner London Education Authority during the late 1980s, reports, "Parents have taken choice very seriously, and research has shown great consistency in what they tend to be looking for. They want order and discipline, academic achievement, and proximity".
The act has set up independent city technical colleges, which have also proven popular. England's urban students are beating a path to their doors, are teachers. In one case, there were 2,000 applicants for 50 advertised teaching jobs.
Valerie Bragg, head of Kings--hurst City Technical College, which first opened in September 1988, says that the school received 1,000 applications for 180 teaching openings in the first year. Bragg
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