Press Release

"Enhancing Education Outcomes through Competition"

As we enter another presidential election cycle, hardly a day will go by when someone on TV isn't talking about "improving education" for Californians and all Americans.

Great idea. But before we go too far down that path, let's ask one question: Just who is responsible for the quality of education in our schools anyway?

Here's a partial list: the school board, the principal, the state Legislature, the governor, the president, Congress, the state superintendent of Public Instruction, the state secretary of Education and his department, the federal secretary of Education and her department -- the list goes on.

If improving the quality of education was at all tied to our success in building education bureaucracy, our kids would be among the best educated in the world.

But they're not. And the reason is simple.

With each layer of bureaucracy we've added to the education system in America, responsibility for outcomes spreads across more people and agencies to the point where one cannot identify who is responsible because no one person or agency is.

What's worse, the burgeoning education bureaucracy consumes an ever-expanding portion of tax dollars allocated to educating kids. The funds that do eventually make it to the classroom are immediately demanded by teachers union officials, whose primary interest is to raise salaries and benefits, rather than maximize the quality of the education delivered to kids.

Finally, the massive consolidation of school districts that occurred following World War II promised greater economies of scale, but in effect resulted in pooling more educators into larger and even less accountable districts. If the schools' superintendent in Los Angeles wanted to hold a staff meeting, he couldn't do it in Dodger Stadium -- it's too small.

The growing charter school movement is one that intends to counter the trend toward greater bureaucracy and less accountability by shifting authority and responsibility to the school site, giving both accountability and authority to those closest to the school. Across the state and across America, we've seen some pretty dramatic results.

Take a look at some results in San Diego as measured by California's "Academic Performance Index." In the state's most recent report card on how students are doing, San Diego Unified scored 729 on a scale of 200 to 1000.

San Diego's Preuss School, a charter, scored 861. Defenders of the status quo often claim charter schools have students from better socioeconomic backgrounds, and dismiss the difference in performance to situations at home. Yet, that excuse doesn't explain the stellar performance at Preuss, which has a student body that is almost entirely economically disadvantaged and whose mission is to focus on children whose parents did not attend a four-year university. I recently had the pleasure of touring that school, where more than 90 percent of graduates have gone on to pursue a university education, and saw first-hand what a dedicated staff can do if unshackled from bureaucratic straightjackets.

High Tech High is another example, with an API score of 809. While its student body tends to be a bit more affluent, its score is higher than public high school Scripps Ranch, with a score of 775.

Charter schools free educators from much of the bureaucratic red tape in exchange for being measured by results. When charter schools produce superior results, kids benefit most. Meanwhile, superior charter schools provide underperforming schools with something they didn't have before: competition.

Unfortunately, entrenched education interest groups -- primarily teachers unions -- continue to fight any effort to expand charter schools. By fighting new charter schools that might not elect to unionize their work force, these interest groups would shut down potential High Tech Highs and Preuss Schools, denying future students the chance to get a better education.

San Diego kids deserve every advantage in an increasingly competitive global marketplace, and our charter schools are showing just what can be achieved when good teachers, good parents and good kids are freed from bureaucracy and empowered to reach for the stars.

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