The Oregonian has jumped on the Charter School bandwagon (Jan. 15,1999). The paper endorses Senate Bill 100, saying it includes adequate restrictions on how charter schools originate and operate. Over the past weeks the paper has all but drowned the issue in a flood of ink. One would think charter schools are central to the debate about improving public education - instead of being a mere sideshow, and a possible distraction.
Columnist David Reinhard takes over the reins of the bandwagon, offering up an inspirational anecdote from the personal history of a pro-charter lobbyist as an example of how dissatisfied parents can start their own school, and run it their way: "freed from most educational regulations," to, in the words of Reinhardt's example, "innovate like crazy." ("Chart(er)ing a new course for schools," The Oregonian, 1/17/99).
While public schools are under continuing pressure from Republicans for more accountability, charter schools are a detour around many state regulations which assure accountability. Two years ago the Republican Legislature passed the Accountability for Schools for the 21st Century Law, which, among other things,requires certified teachers to return to college for updating their licenses. Now the same legislators are setting up a parallel system of education which waters down even the basic requirements for certification.
Nowhere in the mass of media coverage has it been suggested that charter school proposals are, in large part, a politically-motivated attack on the public education system. Many of the promoters of charter schools, House Education Committee Chairman Rep. Ron Sunseri for example, have always regarded public education as a failed experiment in socialism. Part of conservatives' attraction to charter school plans is that they hope these quasi-privatized schools will generate marketplace competition among schools, to the disadvantage of the traditional school system.
cc: Governor Kitzhaber