Here’s what I don’t understand about the opponents of school reform, including their most recent convert, pro-reformer turned anti-reformer Diane Ravitch. What do they have against letting poor parents have options, just as all other parents have?

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week, Ravitch explains that she has turned against charter schools because their “promise has not been fulfilled. Most studies of charter schools acknowledge that they vary widely in quality.” Given “the weight of studies, evaluations and federal test data,” she concludes that charters and deregulation aren’t the answer.

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House and Senate leaders likely will negotiate their differences over legislation that would bring charter schools - or “innovative schools” - to Mississippi.

After a nearly two-hour debate at the Capitol on Tuesday, the House passed its own version of a Senate bill that would allow parents to restructure operations of a dozen schools across the state that are either failing or at risk of failing for three consecutive years.

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State House lawmakers have advanced legislation that could pave the way for the restructuring of some failing school districts.

After a nearly two-hour debate, the House voted 88-30 today in favor of a so-called “innovative schools” bill, which would give parents a chance to restructure operations of a dozen schools that are either failing or at risk of failing.

Senate Bill 2293 is expected to be negotiated with Senate lawmakers to hash out details. The original Senate version of the bill called for the creation of charter schools in the state. House members reworked the bill to remove the phrase “charter school.”

In January, three University of Mississippi undergraduates advocated for charter schools before the Mississippi House Committee on Education out of concern for the crisis of education in the state. The Public Policy Leadership majors, Chelsea Caveny, Cortez Moss and Alex McLelland, met resistance to partial measures for progress.

Aside from a few vocal opponents, the general response from Republicans in the room was positive and some Democrats were cautiously open to charter schools. The most vocal opponents of charter school legislation worried about the children who stay behind in traditional schools. One representative exclaimed: “Separate but unequal!”

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Molly Parker • mparker2@jackson.gannett.com • March 3, 2010

The House Education Committee on Tuesday passed an education reform bill that gives parents the ability to create other schools if the ones their children attend are deemed failing or at risk of failing for three years.

House Education Chairman Cecil Brown introduced the measure — named the “Innovative School Act of 2010” — as an alternative to the charter school legislation that the Senate passed earlier this session.

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By Bob Herbert | New York Times | February 22, 2010

Deborah Kenny talks a lot about passion — the passion for teaching, for reading and for learning. She has it. She wants all of her teachers to have it. Above all, she wants her students to have it.

Ms. Kenny has created three phenomenally successful charter schools in Harlem and is in the process of creating more. She’s gotten a great deal of national attention. But for all the talk about improving schools in this country, she thinks we tend to miss the point more often than not.

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A Stone’s Throw is a short film which demonstrates the desire of Mississippi parents, teachers, pastors, and students to have more public school options. It also features two charter public schools - one that is located just a stone’s throw from Mississippi parents in Helena, Arkansas, and one that is just across the state line in Memphis, Tennessee. Their methods are different, but their results are the same - successful students, fulfilled teachers, and satisfied parents.

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The state Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would clear the way for charter schools in Mississippi and sent the controversial measure to the House.

Previous measures have failed to gain support in recent years, but a leading Democrat in the House said some members of that chamber may be warming to the idea.

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A divided Mississippi Senate has passed a bill that would allow the widespread use of charter schools in the state.

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Charter schools are publicly funded, but operate outside some of the rules and regulations for traditional schools.

Legislation that would allow for start-up charter schools or for converting failing schools to charters is alive in the Senate after at least 14 bills addressing charter schools have died in the House.

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