The path we’re on – one in which the number of public schools continues to grow while low-performing schools, both KCPS and charter, operate indefinitely – is unsustainable. How do we get on a more equitable, coherent, and higher quality path?
This week I had an op-ed published in the Kansas City Star: “Kansas City can find a middle path between district-run and charter schools.” It’s a response to the guest commentaries written by KCPS school board member Jennifer Wolfsie and University Academy Board Chair Bush Helzberg in which they share their KCPS and charter perspectives, respectively, on the future of public education in our school district.
My op-ed builds on a lot of the themes I’ve written about over the last two years in Set the Schools Free: our changing public school enrollment landscape, what our growing charter sector is telling us, and the need to find a middle path between an all-KCPS and all-charter system. Because there are, of course, strengths and weaknesses to both ways of operating schools.
Partnerships are one way we can capitalize on the strengths of a centrally-coordinated system while leveraging the flexibilities and autonomies of the charter school model. There are others. If we’re committed to building a more equitable, coherent and higher quality system of schools, let’s be open to exploring all the different options available.
You can find my op-ed, and links to the Wolfsie and Helzberg pieces, here.
