The purpose of public education, as introduced by the nation’s founders and repeated throughout the constitutions of all 50 states and territories in numerous ways, was to ensure a system would exist for the provision of teaching children and students. When that system began to fail to do just that, it was challenged, then slowly began a transformation. The result today is a slowly but surely changing environment for education, one that moved us in many states and cities from a public school ‘system’ to a new, more responsive and more relevant ecosystem of schools.
Because we have seen the sheer magic created when citizens, leaders, and educators are given the ability to create or manage their own schools through the 27-year-old charter school movement here, because we have seen what happens when the less-affluent have access to the private schools that affluent people have always chosen over low-quality public school, because we have seen the innovations that can occur in traditional public schools when educators are given wide berth to innovate, we know that more than just one model is necessary to educate kids, create community, and help all achieve prosperity and happiness.
That takes creating the opportunities for these conditions to occur, and that’s precisely what Puerto Rico did in March this year, when it enacted a new education law permitting the creation of charter schools and providing for scholarships for those trapped in failing schools to attend schools that better meet their needs, including private schools. The law also provided for the creation of a new islandwide bilingual model that prioritizes subjects including math and science and decentralized the Department of Education. A state so badly impacted by poor quality schools, and where parents were exiting long before Hurricane Maria further devastated the potential for education, was the beneficiary of bold thinking by Gov. Ricardo Rossello and Education Secretary Julia Kelleher, who moved to close schools based on these migrations and failing education. The new law was a bipartisan response to institute more accountability and inevitably more options for students and families. Their efforts were met, however, immediately with a lawsuit by the state’s teachers’ union, pushed by the national unions, so that the entire spring and summer progress was at a standstill.
Consider the data that the unions don’t apparently think requires systemic change: Only 33 percent of students are proficient in math, while only 10 percent of students in grades 7, 8, and 11 were able to pass standardized tests last year! In their native language, only 49 percent of students achieved proficiency in Spanish also last year.
Yet a law to change all that was stalled for months thanks to litigious vested interests. Could this be the main reason why unions are losing money and power and the U.S. Supreme Court removed their “right” to extract money involuntarily from teachers just this summer?
Thankfully, just days before the kids went back to school this month, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that the education reform law is indeed constitutional, following similar precedents and thorough understandings of what state constitutions like Puerto Rico may do to address the constitutional mandate of education for all. The decision was heralded by the state’s business leaders, civic groups, universities, and ed tech community, all of who know that in a highly sophisticated global world connected by the touch of device, there is no end to what can be done if people are willing to look beyond their petty differences.
And now, the work to stand up the commonwealth’s first charter school approval, founded by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico, can begin. A civic organization such as this which has nobly supported less advantaged communities for decades was somehow a threat to the unions, the establishment. What kind of people are threatened by organizations that have taken care of kids for so long? You make that decision.
So while the court case is over, and the business of educational change can begin, much more must be done in policy, practice, and in communicating the importance of both to the people of Puerto Rico so that they understand the power of opportunity now within their reach. Changes must occur in all segments of education, “K through career.”
New pathways to higher learning and skills are necessary to ensure that Puerto Rico prospers and grows. The law and an affirmative court ruling paved the way. Now it’s time for all who have great educational tools, schools, or services to join the effort to support our friends in improving life for the beautiful Island off our mainland.
Jeanne Allen (@JeanneAllen) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog. She is CEO and founder of the Center for Education Reform.
