[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 70 (Thursday, May 7, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SUPPORTING NATIONAL CHARTER SCHOOLS WEEK

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                               speech of

                            HON. ROB BISHOP

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 6, 2009

  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I'm honored to be able to sponsor 
this resolution commending Charter Schools for their contributions to 
education, and designating this week as National Charter School Week. 
Successful businesses don't build a product and then find a target 
group to which to market their product. Successful businesses pick a 
target group, find a need, then build a product that satisfies that 
need.
  When we talk about reforming education, we must remember that parents 
are the target market. Kids belong to the parent, not to an educator or 
a legislator. We unfortunately forget this too often. There is 
sometimes an institutional attitude of antagonism toward parents. In a 
1910 essay entitled How We Think, even John Dewey wrote that one 
inhibitor to problem solving was parental values. One could ask whose 
values would have been more appropriate. A school's direction ought to 
be agreeable to parents. The final word ought to be with parents. If 
the parents are satisfied, who else cares and what else matters? 
Schools are for the kids and the parents and no one else.
  Charter schools take us a large step in that direction--the direction 
of treating parents as the customers. In Utah, there are currently 67 
charter schools serving 27,000 kids, and there are several more slated 
to open this year. Several have a specific emphasis on math and 
science, and several others focus on the arts. The curriculum is often 
selected by parents. There are no geographical boundaries to any of 
them. Some charters belong to a school district, and others are their 
own district.
  There is often a higher demand than there is supply of seats in a 
charter, so in Utah those seats are generally awarded by a lottery 
system. Nationally, there are more than 365,000 kids on charter school 
waiting lists. Why is it that parents want their kids to attend charter 
schools? It's because a charter school meets their needs better. 
Charter schools take us closer to the goal of treating the parents as 
the customers. In many cases charters have a large percentage of 
students who are either minorities or economically disadvantaged--in 
one Utah charter, 70% of the students fall in this category. Many of 
these are kids who haven't done well in traditional public schools, but 
who thrive in the charter school. Several studies have backed this up 
by showing that kids who are behind academically do better in a charter 
school than they would in a traditional public school. Charters are 
able to innovate, find creative ways to meet the needs of parents and 
kids, and the customer is satisfied.
  In that sense, charter schools are the most accountable of all our 
public schools. They're directly accountable to parents, because if the 
parents aren't satisfied, they'll take their kids elsewhere. In Utah, 
it's working. According to one study, 94% of parents gave their 
children's charter school an A or B grade. The success of Charter 
schools should also teach us the potential of the public education 
system. Charter schools are not private schools. They are public 
schools. Public schools can easily compete with private schools when 
the public schools are released from bureaucratic restrictions and 
allowed to be creative. Only with the freedom to be creative can any 
school meet the individual needs of students and parents. Without 
choices and freedom to be creative, kids become a widget on a conveyor 
belt to the local school ``factory.''
  There are a number of things we can do to allow charters to continue 
to grow, including eliminating the caps on the number of charter 
schools, and addressing inequitable funding treatment. We will continue 
to encourage these reforms, and we'll continue to lower the barriers to 
innovation and creativity in education.
  One member of the Utah State Charter School Board said, in many ways, 
charter schools are doing for education what the printing press did for 
the world of communication. Charter schools have promised creativity, 
innovation, inspiration, and motivation, and I believe they have 
delivered.
  Charter schools have ignited the desire to rethink aspects of our 
nation's education system. They have shown how involved parents can and 
will be in their children's education. They are finding ways to reduce 
class size, deliver the Core Curriculum to smaller school communities, 
and increase individualization of instruction.
  Charter schools are helping our public education system to be the 
best it can be for every child. I commend the parents, teachers, 
administrators, and creative innovators involved in charter schools 
throughout the country.

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