Last fall, Arlene Ackerman, the former schools superintendent in Philadelphia, made a stunning announcement for someone of her status. In a newspaper op-ed, she forcefully came out in favor of expanded school choice options, including more charter schools and yes, even vouchers. “I’ve come to a sad realization,” she wrote. “Real reform will never come from within the system.”
In this redefinED podcast, Ackerman talks more about her evolution.
For years, she pushed change from the highest perches in K-12 education. Before Philly, she headed the school districts in Washington D.C. and San Francisco. She led the latter when it became a finalist for the prestigious Broad Prize, annually awarded to the best urban school district in the country, in 2005. But the kinds of sweeping reform needed to help poor and minority kids, she said, too often met with resistance from unions, politicians, vendors and others who benefited from not budging.
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One should notice that the superintendent, like most if not all pundits, just throws “choice” in the air and sees what sticks. There is nothing in Ackerman’s announcement that says what the problem is, what the solutions are.
So parents get choice. Choice of what? A choice of more intellectual junk food?
If there is to be choice then it must be among required set of nourishing entrees, and not just macaroni & cheese and pizza.