Public school champions seek to build confidence in system

Go Public Gulf Coast debates joining forces with its charter counterparts

With charter-school and private-school-voucher advocate Betsy DeVos set to be confirmed as the new U.S. Education secretary, leaders from at least 25 Houston-area school districts strategized this week on how to better market public schools in the area.

The inaugural meeting on Wednesday of Go Public Gulf Coast, an offshoot of an organization formed in San Antonio in 2013 after a privately funded $30 million push to bring in new charter schools, revealed both some shared goals and divides among public school champions.

“I don’t want to see public schools losing attendance. I don’t want to see schools with less money and without enough money to educate their students,” said Bob Covey, a Cypress-Fairbanks ISD board member who is leading the Houston-area Go Public effort. “I’d like to see more people out there being very proud of public school education.”

Fighting the negative

At the root of Wednesday’s meeting was a question Texas public schools have wrestled with for decades: Should traditional school districts work with charter schools to advance their mutual goals, or should traditional campuses fight against an onslaught of negative publicity themselves?

While conservative lawmakers largely have lauded charter schools, complaints about their traditional counterparts have reached a fever pitch in re- cent years.

DeVos, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Education, is among traditional public education’s chief critics. The billionaire philanthropist has spent much of her life advocating for the expansion of tax-payer funded vouchers that offest the cost of private school tuition for students from lower-income backgrounds. During a 2015 speech she gave at Austin’s SXSW education convention, she said the traditional American public school system, as it exists now, is a “dead end.”

Houston-area school district leaders agreed Wednesday that their messages should focus on the positive contributions of public schools, and they debated what role, if any, charter schools should play in their branding. Charter schools are public, tuition-free campuses that are allowed to operate with greater flexibility.

Aldine ISD Superintendent Wanda Bamberg, who has pioneered partnerships with YES Prep Charter Schools, asked if charters ought to be included in Go Public Gulf Coast.

Cy-Fair ISD Superintendent Mark Henry said that would be a “no-go” for him.

“I view this as a universal traditional public school organization,” Henry said. “I’m not against public charter school cooperation, but for-profit and even nonprofit charters, I don’t think they do anything positive for our school districts.”

Houston ISD trustee Rhonda Skillern-Jones agreed. She said traditional public schools need to band together and rally their allies as legislators work to dismantle public education funding and confidence in the system.

“They are eagle-eye focused in one direction, and that is annihilating public education,” Skillern-Jones said. “If we want to make a difference, we need to get our allies together and get moving. Our narrative needs to be written by us and not them.”

‘We’re for that’

Christine Isett, director of communications for the Texas Charter Schools Association, said charters are public schools and are forced to operate with $1,400 less in funding per student than traditional public schools.

“Anything that increases quality of public school options for students, whether traditional or charter, we’re for that. If charters create competition and increase performance of school districts, who wins? The kids,” Isett said. “This us-vs.-them dialogue is not helpful.”

But charters do not struggle with the same attacks as traditional public schools, said Losasso Jackson, executive director of Go Public San Antonio. When she joined the organization in August, the most common gripe about public schools she heard was that they are failing kids.

“And that is absolutely not the truth,” she said. “Public education is not failing our kids, and it’s important to highlight all the successes that are happening.”