All over the country, new private school choice programs are being created, more of the last remaining holdout states are beginning to allow charter schools, and a growing number of students are enrolling in educational options chosen by their parents.
But, on our latest podcast, Jim Blew, who served as the national president of StudentsFirst and will be focusing on California after a merger with the 50-state Campaign for Achievement Now (aka 50CAN), says it’s hardly time to declare victory.
“Creating high-quality alternatives to the traditional system is a very fragile effort that continues to be under attack every day,” he says. “… The reality of running a charter school is that you still feel, every day, that somebody is trying to snuff out your school, and anybody who’s been involved in the [private-school] scholarship programs will tell you the same thing.”
Look no further than current events in Florida.
Blew says that when 50CAN and StudentsFirst join forces, the broad pillars of their agendas – expanding quality school choices and creating accountability policies for teachers and schools – will remain largely the same. But they’ll also vary state-by-state.
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