There are a number of measures before the General Assembly this
session to allow state takeover of underperforming schools. In earlier posts, you have seen reference to
HB 2096 and SB 1324. VEA has joined
other opponents of these bills is saying that they violate Article VIII,
Section 7 of the Constitution of Virginia:
The supervision of schools in each school division shall be vested in a school board, to be composed of members selected in the manner, for the term, possessing the qualifications, and to the number provided by law.
What is most interesting is that the same individuals who tell us
that the takeover bills are constitutional, have a constitutional amendment
allowing for state takeover of public schools before the General Assembly. Trust me when I say that this is an effort to
bring in for-profit charter school corporations to run our schools. That is precisely what has happened in
Louisiana and other states which have taken this approach.
The most recent charter school research reveals that, “Up to this point, the majority of
high-quality research studies on charter effects in the U.S. have tended to
show no meaningful impact—positive or negative—on student achievement.” - National Education Policy Center
Virginia’s
schools continue to perform at a very high level, 4th in the nation
in the recent Quality Counts report.
Despite all
this, the current administration is hell-bent on taking over Virginia’s public
schools and turning them into charter schools, as was done in post-Katrina
Louisiana. The current efforts want to
duplicate Louisiana’s Recovery Schools District (RSD), calling Virginia’s
equivalent the Opportunity Educational Institution (OEI).
What is the
track record of the RSD? This entity was
created in 2003 for the purpose of turning around underperforming schools. There are currently 60 schools in the RSD. They give letter grades to schools in
Louisiana. The turnaround effort was a
total failure in seven of the schools, so they are putting them under new
governance. Twenty-nine of the schools
are still failing. Sixteen of them were
graded D, four C, four B and none received an A. Not so hot!
So now we are
going to not only adopt this plan in Virginia, HJ 693 would have us put this
plan in the Constitution of Virginia.
Jefferson, a strong believer in public education, is turning over in his grave.
This Constitutional Amendment will be before the full Senate tomorrow.
