Testimony on "School choice" package to Senate Education Committee, 9-20-11

We delivered testimony on 20 September to the Senate Education Committee, asking its members not to move forward with charter expansion, new kinds of charters, or teacher privatization.

The bills before the committee would remove the numerical and geographic limits on charter schools, introduce a new kind of charter, the “conversion school,” expand “cyber schools,” and allow schools to privatize their teachers.

From our testimony:

Many schools in our state do need substantial help to serve their students well, and nearly all schools have room for improvement. The focus of our public policy should be on providing that help, and the resources to back it up, rather than fragmenting public education and hollowing out our traditional school districts. This bill package will not take our state where we need to go.

A full printed copy of our testimony can be downloaded from the link below.