The Urban School System of the Future by Smarick Andy;

Author:Smarick, Andy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: R&L Education
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Diversification: Removing Exclusive Authority

The traditional urban school district was designed to own and operate all public schools within a geographic area. Students were assigned to schools based on their home addresses. And because the district was the lone public education delivery system for a century, most assumed that the district and public education were synonymous. Accordingly, for generations, there was entirely too little school diversity within urban public education. But since there are so many different types of students with so many different types of needs and interests, this was a poor formula.

David Tyack summarized the underlying tension as early as 1974, writing, “The search for the one best system has ill-served the pluralistic character of American society.”[19] In the years before Minnesota passed its charter law, one of the leaders of that effort wrote, “We believe that true equality of opportunities demands that different kinds of programs be available. We think providing identical programs to all students guarantees unequal results.”[20]

Of course, a “one-best-system” arrangement would be inconceivable in most other phases of our lives. For our meals, we can choose fast food, sit-down, or carryout, and among each category are countless alternatives. If we prefer to cook at home, we can select from a wide range of grocery and convenience stores, markets, and produce stands. We even have access to specialty outlets like bakeries and delis. The same applies to our housing options. We can rent or buy townhouses, condominiums, apartments, duplexes, and single-family homes. Within each type there are many options—colonial, split-level, split-entry. We can also make choices related to urbanicity, neighborhoods, and builders.

Diversity even abounds in higher education. As of 2007, there were more than 4,300 degree-granting institutions in the United States with more than 1,600 provided by the government, an equal number run by private, nonprofit entities, and more than one thousand operated by for-profit firms.[21] A New Yorker graduating from high school and hoping to stay in state had more than three hundred options.[22] These included sixty-four SUNY campuses, twenty-three CUNY institutions, and numerous private institutions such as Cornell, Syracuse, Columbia, Fordham, Siena, and NYU.

An equivalent array of options was almost entirely absent from urban public schooling until the 1990s. Chartering forever changed that by diversifying the system in two critical ways. Prior to chartering, districts both oversaw and managed schools. Chartering not only separated those functions—into authorization and operation—it expanded the entities able to perform both. Because of chartering, districts now have exclusive authority over neither.

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