Legacies now secure in charters | Heleringer
If Matthew Griswold Bevin never serves another day as Kentucky’s governor, if Education Secretary Hal Heiner never builds another industrial park (his former day job), if Senator Mike Wilson and Rep. John “Bam” Carney never write another bill as chairmen of the Senate and House Education committees, and if Rev. Jerry Stephenson never preaches another sermon, their legacies are secure. All of these individuals, in concert with a superb supporting cast, were instrumental in passing the charter schools bill last week, perhaps the most important legislation our Commonwealth has ever put on its books, rivaling the iconic Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990.
In one bold stroke, Kentucky “shocked the world” and said once and for all, we are going to break the bonds of educational ignorance and malfeasance that has been one of our state’s most unfortunate “traditions,” a tradition that has been ancestral, cultural and generational.
Late to the cause, Kentucky became the 44th state to permit alternative structures of public elementary and secondary education called charter schools that, hopefully, will provide transformative possibilities for our most challenged students and their families. The urgent need for this reform has never been greater than here in Jefferson County, home to 5 of the state’s bottom ten performing high schools and ever-widening achievement gaps and graduation rates for minority students. As the think tank Bluegrass Institute (another major player in the charter schools movement) has noted, despite the JCPS’s establishment in 2010 of “priority” schools, the achievement deficit between minority and white students continues to widen. Recent results on the EXPLORE (8th grade) and PLAN (10th grade) college readiness tests were worse in 2015 than in 2012.
Beleaguered parents, especially those in the West End supported by Rev. Stephenson’s Pastors in Action Coalition, have been told for decades that they have no alternative, no way to escape their failing schools. Poor and middle-class families who cannot afford private education will now be able to try a different model, just like millions of similarly-situated people have been empowered to do in New York, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Washington, D.C. and many other inner cities.
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The bill has huge implications for Louisville. Families wanting educational choice here can turn to their mayor who is, under the legislation, an “authorizer” of charter schools. Far from waging a “War on Louisville” during this session of the legislature, as critics of some so-called “meddling” bills have charged, the Republican majorities in Frankfort have handed Democrat Mayor Greg Fischer a golden opportunity to insure the success of his 55,000 Degrees program. His Honor surely knows that non-learning/achieving students can never hope to get a college degree if they haven’t succeeded at the high school level, who can’t read anywhere close to their grade level and, of course, may not have even graduated.
Beyond the text of the bill itself, the charter schools legislation contains an uplifting psychological fringe benefit. House Bill 520 is what we used to call in Frankfort an “attention-getter.” It says we are never turning back; that no future Commissioner of Education will ever use the term “genocide” to describe our public school system; that we have joined the ranks of other progressive states that decided long ago to reform public education and give parents real voices and choices in the process. As Bowling Green’s Rep. Jim DeCesare said on the House floor, “We’re going to start thinking outside the box, to consider 21st-century innovations.” Those words may lack Lincolnesque eloquence, but DeCesare is spot-on that public education reform is all about government of the people, by the people and for the people.
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Charter schools are not panaceas, some have failed in other states. But the ones established in Kentucky will spend tax dollars, meaning they will have to be accountable and transparent. Despite the risk of failure that accompanies any worthwhile endeavor, there must be an alternative to doing absolutely nothing. If kids aren’t educated, they will have no chance in life beyond the most plebeian of existences or, worse, become a criminal justice statistic. If charter schools help even one formerly-failing student to succeed, it will have been worth the effort. And isn’t that the real purpose of education? Isn’t that a parent’s Job One, choosing what’s best for their children, not being told by some bureaucrat what’s best for their children?
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In 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down an Oregon law that made Catholic schools illegal in that state (Pierce v. Society of Sisters). The Court said: “The child is not the mere creature of the state. Those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” Thanks to a courageous and forward-thinking state legislature, that Supreme Court decision —92 years later —is finally the law of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Bob Heleringer is a Louisville attorney who served in Kentucky's House from the 33rd District from 1980 to 2002. He can be reached at helringr@bellsouth.net.
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