Shouldn't #charterschools #vouchers #virtualschools work together to expand #schoolchoice? http://t.co/OUUDCQ4EY6 #edreform #edpolicy2 hours agoReplyRetweet
Boston #charterschools outperform trad public schools on AP, SAT, other tests http://t.co/htEGUuz1Z6 #schoolchoice #edreform #edpolicy2 hours agoReplyRetweet
RT @MakeUrbanRight: Check out this great RedefinED article on Former White House Press Secretary Mik... http://t.co/xZhzEhTODZ3 hours agoReplyRetweet
La. #voucher ruling should make #schoolchoice supporters rethink sch funding http://t.co/DwFL8tahg7 via @seandkennedy83 @donsoifer #edpolicy3 hours agoReplyRetweet
RT @SchoolChoiceNow: Check out this great article from @redefinEDonline on @mmccurry's call for bipartisanship at the #AFCPolicySummit http…3 hours agoReplyRetweet
RT @schoolchoicewk: Fmr WH Press Secretary McCurry: #SchoolChoice is antidote for broken politics http://t.co/nYNSTLkGSk via @redefinEDonli…4 hours agoReplyRetweet
@FLSenate Pres. Gaetz and @MyFLHouse Speak @willweatherford visit @tampabaytechhs today to talk career academies & more #CAPEact #legFL5 hours agoReplyRetweet
NC Rep. @KMarcusBrandon: Not prog Dem ideal to keep kids in struggling schools http://t.co/b9YLp6CBmE #schoolchoice @DFER_News @DFER_CA5 hours agoReplyRetweet
NC Rep. @KMarcusBrandon: Not prog Dem ideal to keep kids in struggling schools http://t.co/b9YLp6CBmE #schoolchoice #vouchers #edpolicy5 hours agoReplyRetweet
Alabama lawmakers say no to @GovernorBentley plan to delay new #schoolchoice program http://t.co/bNKEhYGNIX #edreform #edpolicy #vouchers6 hours agoReplyRetweet

About Fawn Spady

Fawn Spady is the board chair for the American Center for School Choice. She is also  founder of the public affairs, marketing and media strategy consulting firm, Creative Empowerment, Inc. Her almost 30-year career in business marketing, promotion and public affairs initiatives has earned her national awards and recognition.

 

As marketing director for Daniel Smith Fine Art Supplies in the early 1990’s, she developed the marketing strategy that established Daniel Smith as the largest fine arts supply catalog in the country. Along with her husband, Jim, who is Vice President for the family’s business, Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants Inc., she has done extensive community outreach and marketing events and promotion. Fawn designed the recent record breaking multi-media and Facebook campaign to announce the first new store in 36 years. The community outreach programs; “Change for Charity,” and “Good Deeds Awards,” and the year-long 40th and 50th Dick’s Anniversary Celebrations have all contributed to Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants being named Seattle Magazine’s “Best Places to Work,” and earned the company a cover story in the Seattle Times Pacific Magazine.

 

She and her husband founded the Education Excellence Coalition to revitalize public education through legislative reforms based on increasing parental choice and competition. The Spadys ran two statewide initiative campaigns and worked with the State Legislature to improve public education over the past 16 years. Their work was recognized with a “Best Of Education Reform Award” from the Center of Education Reform, a national advocacy group in Washington, DC.

 

Fawn has served on the advisory board of the Puget Sound USO, Washington News Council, and The Institute for Justice, she helped found Women of Washington. In 2004 she ran for the State Legislature in the 41st District. Fawn is commentator on education and politics, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Seattle Times, and on all the local television networks and radio stations.

 

The Spadys have two children; Jasmine a Naval officer and Saul a specialist in Sports & TV Production.
Author Archive | Fawn Spady

In wake of ballot initiative, momentum for charter schools in Washington state

By on December 19, 2012

School choice has encountered greater travails in few venues besides Washington State. Before they narrowly approved a new charter law this November, voters rejected charter initiatives in 1996 and 2000 and repealed a charter law enacted by the legislature in 2004. Washington State is in fact the only state where charter schools have ever faced voters directly. Now, opponents including the Washington State teachers union and the state superintendent of schools are threatening to sue to try to have the law held unconstitutional. 

washington charter resource centerBut you can’t keep a good idea down, as we saw last week at the Washington Charter School Resource Center conference. My husband Jim and I started the center in 2000. We hosted 160 interested people, 80 percent of them educators, at a forum on how to start a charter school successfully. Many hope to open a school next fall.

We are frustrated that the opposition remains so intense when the need for new approaches and frankly, for empowering parents with more educational options, is so obvious. Not even half of our fourth- and eighth-graders were proficient on national reading and math tests in 2011. Although we are fortunate in Washington State to have fewer low-income families than the national average, we rank only 37th in high school completion. Our graduation rate was 73.7 percent in 2011, and it was just 56.5 percent for Native Americans, 65.4 percent for African Americans and 64.5 percent for Hispanics. This is simply unacceptable.

Thankfully, we heard the imperative for change from those attending our forum. A principal told us he was tired of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. A parent said she just knows there is a better choice for her special needs children. A retired teacher said public charter schools give her the desire to return to public education. A former school board member declared charters a way to engage parents in schools.

Particularly encouraging for us is the wealth of expertise eager to assist us in moving forward. Continue Reading →

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Hey, Mikey! They like it! (or, hope for Washington State)

By on November 3, 2011

Editor’s note: This entry comes from Fawn Spady, the chairwoman of the American Center for School Choice

This past week, I spoke to an “Introduction to Teaching” class at Green River Community College just south of Seattle.

I was asked to speak by a teacher who had been following the work my husband and I have done over the past 17 years to bring education choice to Washington State. She had already shown her students the movies “Waiting for Superman” and “The Lottery.” Interesting.

I thought it might be fun to take the pulse of these future teachers. Has anything changed here over the past four years that we have taken a hiatus from our education choice work? We have a liberal president in the White House who supports charter schools. Many high-tech leaders in Washington have dipped their toes in the water of education reform by lobbying the legislature for small reforms. Schools haven’t improved. The state budget is a deficit mess. Teachers union credibility has been damaged by strikes and their irrational unwillingness to consider merit pay.

Were future teachers going to be open to the possibility of education choice?

I began my presentation with a quote from one of their heroes, Steve Jobs:

I believe very strongly that if the country gave each parent a voucher … several things would happen. Number one, schools would start marketing themselves like crazy to get students. Secondly, I think you’d see a lot of new schools starting … I believe that they would do far better than any of our public schools would. The third thing you’d see is … the quality of schools again, just in a competitive marketplace, start to rise.

They were receptive. As in the old Life cereal ad, I thought to myself, “Hey, Mikey! They like it!”

I summarized our 14-year battle, gave out union dues statistics and showed them education choice Web sites from around the country. The online maps showed the spread of choice programs nationwide and provide a stark contrast to the absence of choice in Washington State.

I also showed them how their future union is willing to break campaign laws and use their money to keep them from having choices, merit pay and removing ineffective teachers.

In the end, they wanted to know what they could do. We talked about the importance of elections and picking candidates wisely based on information and not party. I told them not to let “the blob” lie to them or the public, and to help spread the truth about education choice among their friends and family. I told them that when they become teachers they need to hold their union accountable, even though it will be hard.

I feel hopeful. We will have to see how the 2012 election goes in Washington State.

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