Charter School Victorious Despite All Out Assault

September 5, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO ? Test scores were soaring at the Edison Charter Academy. The kids loved it. The parents loved it. But San Francisco's liberal school board hated it. So last spring they embarked on a campaign to wipe out the public charter school that was being run by a private company.

Some board members insisted for-profit companies should not be allowed to run public schools. San Francisco just did not seem to care about the successes of the school, and the Edison appeared to be doomed.

The battle against Edison was led by the board president herself. Broken-hearted parents started making alternate plans to educate their kids, because no matter what they wanted, San Francisco seemed determined to eliminate Edison's charter.

"It hit us so fast and so hard, this news that they were going to try to revoke the contract and close down the school," said parent Linda Gausman.

But then parents like Gausman and Laura Baker began organizing and fighting back.

"I think everybody thought we were going to lose. I don't think anybody gave us as parents a shooting chance at this. But what happened is that parents cared enough about having choice for their schools, and rallied and drew community support," Baker said.

"This was a battle of the heart. You couldn't fight it with just your mind," Gausman explained. "You had too much invested. And the alternative of returning our kids to these failing district schools that we'd just removed them from, just the thought of that is what kept propelling us."

One tactic the board used was to accuse Edison of booting out poor performing minority kids to improve the school's score averages. But education scholar Diallo Dphrepaulezz of the Pacific Research Institute studied the issue and found the charge just was not true, and that the scores of black and Latino students at Edison were soaring.

"African-American students as a sub-group did better than 20 percent higher when you compare their 1999 to their 2000 scores," Dphrepaulezz said.

Edison principal Vince Matthews is pleased with what his school has accomplished. "This was the lowest performing school in San Francisco for years and years, and we've been able to turn it around," he said.

Edison helped Gausman's fourth-grade daughter turn around from being an underachiever in just eight months.

"Her reading was way on the rise," Gausman said. "She's just excelling in this program. She's really flourishing in this environment."

Dphrepaulezz says Edison's scores are so good, it "outstrips gains made by any other school in San Francisco with a significant number of black or Latino students."

But the battle went on all year until San Francisco agreed to let the State Board of Education decide Edison's fate this summer. Parents went to Sacramento to testify before the board and were amazed at the reception they got.

"And they were kind. It was like being, as one parent said, in a parallel universe. It was so different from what we had experienced all year in terms of people not listening to us. We had the entire board listening to us," Baker said.

And then, the unexpected happened. "The state board, in about 20 minutes, unanimously voted in favor of approving a five-year renewal charter for the Edison Charter Academy," Dphrepaulezz said.

The state of California saved what San Francisco sought to destroy.

"I burst into tears, tears of joy. We all did. I just lost it," Gausman said. "Just a sense of relief washed over me, and I grabbed my daughter and I hugged her. And it was a really joyous moment."

"Last year, the word from the district was that there will be no Edison Charter Academy next year," Matthews said. "Well, we're still here and the school's still here."

Dphrepaulezz says the Edison victory indicates parents just are not going to put up with failing schools any longer.

"I think Edison has showed us that that's really where it's got to come from: it's got to come from parents at the local level who are really sick and tired of the legacy of failure in their local schools," Dphrepaulezz said.

Baker agrees. "When they voted to turn us over to the state, and a man walked up to us who was just a community member, just interested in seeing what the outcome was going to be. And he said, 'You know, I never gave you guys a prayer of a chance to begin with.' And he said, 'And you did it!'"

As far as the parents of Edison Charter are concerned, this was indeed a David vs. Goliath story, and David definitely won.

JRdd · September 5, 2001

The State is really trying to come down hard on charter schools. In July there was urgent action called for in Sacramento when they were trying their best to take more control. We had some victories, but our budgets are definitely affected. Still, today my daughter got to choose $100 worth of art supplies from a school approved supplier's catalogue (ridiculous as I can get my ownsupplies at a fraction of the cost, and with all this budgeting you'd think they could find better sources, but that's bureau-crazy--doesn't usually make a lot of sense). I'll see if there are any interesting reads about State changes and proposals in my mailbox; I've saved most of it.

JR