A look back at the week in school choice news and beyond: From the “original charter school promise” to the early days of the home school movement to the most-banned books of the last decade, here’s this week’s Charters & Choice news roundup.
Bill Clinton weighs in on charter school accountability...
... what no state has really done adequately, which is to set up a review system to keep the original bargain of charter schools, which was if they weren't outperforming the public model, they weren't supposed to get their charter renewed," former President Bill Clinton told a group of philanthropists in New York City, as reported by The Huffington Post.
Bill Clinton says charter schools must be held to “the original bargain” http://t.co/vN2zfvBtV2
— HuffPostEducation (@HuffPostEdu) September 25, 2014
But there’s a side effect to that bargain—perform or close—what happens to the students?
The scuffle between the Philadelphia School District and Walter Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School may soon create more than 1,000 education refugees—students in search of a desk," writes Kevin McCrory for WHYY's Newsworks.
Chalkbeat Indiana also recently explored the impact “ultimate accountability” can have on a community after parents were sent scrambling to find new schools at the beginning of this school year after the Indianapolis mayor’s office shuttered a charter over a cheating scandal.
A home school history lesson...
Theirs was fundamentally a fight about values, but curiously, it was also where the two opposite ends of the culture wars converged to wage a battle over First Amendment rights and individual choice," - OZY traces the beginnings of the home-schooling movement from both the right and the left.
From choosing schools to choosing books (I am, admittedly, stretching the definition of my school choice beat to include this little nugget) ... It’s the last day of Banned Books Week, brought to you in part by the American Libraries Association.
Reading banned books: share your stories of literary rebellion #BannedBooksWeek http://t.co/55BiIlxPcb pic.twitter.com/axPxlNKvyV
— The Books Story (@_BooksStory) September 26, 2014
For a more thorough reading list, The Washington Post has collected the 10 most challenged books every year since 2000.
Don’t hesitate to tweet recommendations to me @ChartersNChoice for next week’s roundup.