Translation

Experiments in the United States and prospects in Argentina.
May 12, 2000

Charter schools, a way of encouraging participation. Several experts praised their greater academic and financial autonomy.

“A successful school must have a clearly defined vision, and know its chosen direction,” stated Seymour Fliegel, President of the Center for Educational Innovation, a leading education reform institution in the United States.

Fliegel quoted a passage from “Alice in Wonderland,” where the young girl asks her cat where she should go. “Where do you want to go?” the animal replies. “I don’t know,” she answers. “Then, it doesn’t matter which way you choose.” The educator stated that there are schools which lack this vision, not knowing which direction to take; so it does not matter too much what they do.

This was a remark he made during the seminar entitled, “Charter Schools: Experiments in the United States and prospects in Argentina,” held yesterday at the Foundation for Government and Society. The daylong event was organized by LA NACION, the Liberty Foundation, the Argentine Foundation Network, and the Manhattan Institute.

The Mayor of Indianapolis, Stephen Goldsmith, opened the seminar. He said that to improve public education, he reduced bureaucracy which tied up money and decision-making. He said there is a need to create competition and that in his community Catholic schools got the best results. Because of this, public schools are changing the way they educate “to stop losing students.”

A Sign of Insanity

Seymour Fliegel said that one of the definitions of insanity was when someone keeps on doing the same thing, and nevertheless, still hopes for different results. He explained how an experiment in self-government began in the public schools in East Harlem, one of the poorest areas in New York. This district had the lowest scores in reading, mathematics and language.

“When you reach bottom, you can afford the luxury of taking risks,” he said. Fliegel and his team set up three small schools, where problem children from the district who the other schools wanted to “get off their backs” were accepted. “If you are a dreamer, come here,” they told teachers who wanted to join the project. They were treated as professionals; freed from bureaucracy, they acted autonomously and concentrated on teaching the students. “There are teachers who say, I taught this, but the children didn’t learn it,” said Fliegel. And he went on, “I don’t think anything is taught until it is learned.”

In seven years, they set up 27 schools, each with its own institutional plan. The percentage of children reading at grade level in the district went up from 15% to 65%, and a high school that previously had only a 9% graduation rate, restructured its curriculum with an emphasis on math and science and in four years all its graduates went on to college. There were no more graffiti-covered walls and no more violence. The students felt that the school belonged to them.

“A small school creates a sense of family, which is particularly important for poor children,” said Carlos Medina, a fellow of the Center for Educational Innovation. He added that previously there were schools that were failing, but still received the same amount of money from the government. In the charter school model, a group presents a plan and receives state funds to educate children for five years. If the evaluation is positive, the permit is renewed, and if not, they have to close.

Yvonne Chan, a teacher born in China, took over as principal of a high school in Los Angeles and changed it into a charter school. Of her 1,200 students, 1,000 did not speak English well (they were children of immigrants.) There were gangs and drugs in the neighborhood and her life was threatened three times.

“If we think it, we can do it,” she said to herself. And she did not wait for permission to make changes. She set priorities within her official budget. Today her school has perfect attendance. She built 14 new classrooms and a medical office, her teachers earn 15% more than their colleagues and have greater autonomy.

©2000 La Nacion