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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > September > 10 > Entry
Scott Elliott: STEM school could be the future of choice
Dayton has been a nationally important charter school mecca since the beginning of this decade. We tend to think we know a lot about charter schools and giving families school choice here.
Allow me, for a moment, to challenge what we think we know. A peek back at the intent of the push for charter schools in the United States can teach us something about where the school choice movement should go next in Ohio.
By the late 1990s, when Ohio’s charter school law was written, the national push for school choice had become identified with the right, especially conservatives who hoped charter schools competing with traditional public schools — for kids and cash — might spark reform and innovation in low-performing city schools. But that’s not where it all began.
School choice, at the outset, was not a conservative idea, nor was it a liberal idea. It also did not spring from urban centers, where most charter schools have come to be concentrated. It actually began in the suburbs.
The early concepts that led to the first charter school law, passed in Minnesota in 1991, were not driven by a free market-loving desire to inject competition into education. In fact, the idea was not ideologically driven at all. The Minnesota law would not have happened without support from both Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives.
What that effort was about was helping kids find their niche and learn in an environment that suits them.
This came to mind on the first week of school as I toured the new Dayton Regional STEM School in Beavercreek. Technically not a charter school under state law, the STEM school is a regional center that’s drawing students from any of the 30 districts in Montgomery, Greene and Clark counties.
The school is charter-like in that state funding for its students is redirected from their home districts, and the school also has a specialty theme — high-level instruction in science, technology, engineering and math. It signed up students from 20 districts, including many kids who are making long commutes to try out the new school.
The STEM school is very much in the mold of what the original school choice reformers were seeking in Minnesota.
A couple years ago, I interviewed Ted Kolderie and Joe Nathan about the roots of the charter school movement. Kolderie, a former journalist and public policy expert, and Nathan, a teacher, were both in the room when the plan that eventually led to the first charter school law was sketched out at a retreat held at a lakefront resort near Brainard, Minn., in 1988.
What led to that meeting was a growing interest among a small group of reformers who first came together in the mid-1980s to fight for open enrollment and post-secondary options. Both of those idea eventually spread across the country, including to Ohio.
Open enrollment allows students to break free of the boundaries of school districts set by the state. Nathan told me reformers were worried about underachievers — kids who did not fit in at one school, but who might thrive elsewhere.
The post-secondary option allows kids who do not feel challenged in high school to enroll in college courses. That program was explicitly designed to attract ordinary students — kids who might be smart, but who are bored in school — not just academic stars.
Both programs proved wildly popular, especially to suburban families with kids who didn’t fit in well in traditional schools.
The charter push sought to take school options in Minnesota a step further by allowing educators the freedom to start innovative, independent public schools that would be decidedly different from traditional schools, with the hope of giving offbeat kids more and different options to pick from outside of local school districts.
Open enrollment and the post-secondary option had created demand for alternatives — more schools for kids to choose from if they wanted to leave their local schools. Charters were supposed to provide a better range of unique school choices.
That idea still works. Reform shouldn’t stop at the city limits. Suburban and rural kids — even those in high performing districts — deserve variety, too. More regional specialty schools like the STEM school could be the answer.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Education, Scott Elliott, Suburban Communities
Comments
By DaMontae Q.
November 2, 2009 8:06 PM | Link to this
The Stem School is a great way to explore the real world thru science, techonolgy, engineer, and math. While learning other subjects. Trust me I know- as student at the 1st Dayton Regional STEM School.
By DaMontae Q.
November 2, 2009 8:07 PM | Link to this
The Stem School is a great way to explore the real world thru science, techonolgy, engineer, and math. While learning other subjects. Trust me I know- as student at the 1st Dayton Regional STEM School.
By DaMontae Q.
November 2, 2009 8:08 PM | Link to this
The Stem School is a great way to explore the real world thru science, techonolgy, engineer, and math. While learning other subjects. Trust me I know- as student at the 1st Dayton Regional STEM School.
By DaMontae Q.
November 2, 2009 8:08 PM | Link to this
The Stem School is a great way to explore the real world thru science, techonolgy, engineer, and math. While learning other subjects. Trust me I know- as student at the 1st Dayton Regional STEM School.