Change the System not the Standards!

Change the System not the Standards!

By Ron Russo, CRI Executive Director

3/28/2019

In a recent guest column, Atnre Alleyne (Executive Director of DelawareCAN) identified the obstacles faced by many students trying to gain admission to some of the state’s best schools.  Nonpublic schools had high tuitions, high performing charter schools had admission preferences, and successful traditional public schools were located in areas with expensive housing.  Even if the obstacles were removed there wouldn’t be enough seats for everyone.

The solution is to take what makes the successful schools successful and insert it into all traditional schools thereby making an excellent education available to all students.  Such was the rationale for education reform in 1995 proposed by Governor Carper, the Department of Public Instruction, and a consortium of six businesses led by the DuPont Company.  It was to be a systemic change that empowered each school to have local control (site-based management) over operational issues (finances, personnel, curriculum, etc.) with school boards limited to oversight and providing requested assistance.

This is the essence of the BOLD PLAN, a draft piece of legislation that has been provided to Representative Earl Jaques, Chair of the House Education Committee.  Watch for it and get ready to make a difference for every student and for our state.