After losing on its first try, North Carolina secured a federal Race to the Top education grant during the second round of funding. The grant could bring up to $400 million to North Carolina, one of 10 winners in this latest competition. While some are celebrating the grant award, others have concerns. Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, discussed the topic with Mitch Kokai for Carolina Journal Radio. (Click here to find a station near you or to learn about the weekly CJ Radio podcast.)
Kokai: We know that the people who run the education system in North Carolina are happy, and probably many local school systems are happy to see some money will be flowing in. But your organization does have some concerns about this process. Why should we be worried about North Carolina getting this Race to the Top grant?
Allison: Yes. Look, I’m a North Carolinian born and raised, so I’m happy that our state will be receiving precious dollars in light of the challenges that we’re having economically and [with] budgets — things of that nature — and more importantly, the challenges that we’re having in K-12 education, public schools. We need help on many different levels. The issue that I have is: We need to be very clear. If it was all about the money, then I think the Obama administration, the United States Department of Education, would have just given the money. It was not about just getting money.
What was tied to Race to the Top funds was true education reform. They wanted to look at innovative approaches. They wanted states to adopt new ideas — real strong, as we were told and was laid out in the prerequisite in terms of getting the dollars — that they were really looking for states to really step it up and change the way that they normally educate children. So on one front, … we really do have to look at the application that was submitted by our state and really ask the question: Where is the reform? When you say the bulk of the application, basically saying we’re going to target the failing public schools — 100 — and we’re going to do some things here that will then take North Carolina’s trajectory to a higher level for all children, I have a real question.
One of the issues is this term “charter schools” and “charter-like” schools. When you boil it all down, the main difference between a public charter school and a traditional school is the control of the school boards — that in a traditional public school, the school boards control. In public charter schools, you don’t have that control. You have the board control, the autonomous group of individuals in the community coming together and having a plan of how they’re going to best educate their children.
Well, in our application, they framed it “charter-like,” but when you look into the details, these are schools that are going to be continued to be controlled by the school board. And so you ask the question, Mitch, you say, “Where’s the innovation? Where’s the education reform?” Because essentially, there are 100 failing public schools that were already controlled by the school board. We put this package together, we submit this application, and when you boil it all the way down, we’re saying as a state, “Hey, here’s an innovative idea.” And the control in the innovative idea is coming out of the school board.
It makes no sense to me in terms of saying that somehow, some way, that these kids that have already been failed by a school system because of the leadership that’s there, somehow, some way we get $400 million, but … the ultimate decision will be made by the same individuals that have been failing the families and children in the first place. I just don’t see the education reform. I just don’t see how we’re going to make real impact with state graduation rates at 57.8 percent. Education Week just came out with these statistics. Of the 50 states, we are ranked 45th as far as the lowest graduation rates in the nation. I just don’t see where we’re going to make the dent when we have 23,000 to 25,000 dropouts each year in the state of North Carolina. I really don’t see how that is education reform.
And again, we applaud our state. We’re happy that here are some precious dollars that we need. But at the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves: Where will we be from year two, year three, year four? Where will we really see the significant gains? Where will we really see our state moving up in terms of graduation rates? This measure that was approved — ultimately $400 million — will we really, as a state, as a whole, can we honestly say that every child, as a result of these efforts, will be performing at a higher level? Real questions and real concerns.
Kokai: Darrell, you’ve mentioned the difference between charter-like and charter schools. The charter-like schools were included in North Carolina’s application for this federal grant, but the state is doing nothing about its cap on the existing charter schools. You have some concerns that nothing is being done about the real charter schools.
Allison: It begs the question. Now look, I’m not an educator. I’m an education advocate. And this is the first time I’ve even heard of the term “charter-like” or “charter-lite” schools. So now you kind of dig in to see, all right, what is it? What is it? And so this application, you can really question, is this an experiment? Is this really a $400 million experiment?
I think part of the strategy will be that we’ll use some of these funds to come in — those teachers that have had challenges teaching kids, we’re going to bring coaches in to coach them. Those principals that have done a bad job in these failing schools, we’re going to come and bring in the leadership to help them. I really question what is the true definition of a charter-like school experiment? Because for 15 years, we’ve allowed for charter schools, public charter schools, to exist. They’ve been operating in the state. And so the thought would be, hey, why don’t we lift a cap on charters? At least we have a model that’s been working for 15 years. You know, there are exceptional public charter schools. There are some charter schools that have challenges. But let’s focus on those charter schools that have done exceptionally well.
We have a number of public charter schools that rank in the top 100 in the nation. Why don’t we look to those operators and sit down as education leaders in our state and say, hey, we’re looking to lift a cap on charters, but we really want to make sure we do a great job and so we’ll allow for you operators to come to the table, and we’ll allow for you to replicate, duplicate your model that’s been successful in Charlotte, that’s been successful in Wilmington, that’s been successful in Rutherford County, and we’ll allow for you to come to these low-performing school districts and allow for you to open up charter schools?
We’re having a hard time understanding the definition and what exactly is [a charter-like school], compared to [charter schools] on the ground, in operation. [They] have been accredited, have been given a stamp of approval in our nation as being high-performing schools that are educating our children. I’m at a loss. I really am at a loss. And I think we wasted — we missed a wonderful opportunity. I think politics, at the end of the day, you know it’s always around and ultimately got involved, in that we could have really done something this past legislative session to lift that cap on public charter schools.
I can tell you we had a number of parents, armies of parents, that really wanted to lift the cap on charters. We have over 15,000 families on a waiting list for these public charter schools. They’re angry. They’re upset. And I’m going to tell you, they’re going to be marching, and they’re going to be working here, this upcoming election. And I believe that we’re going to hear the school-choice voices loud and clear this upcoming election.