Education momentum

The education reform effort in Memphis is continuing in high gear with the announcement Monday that the Achievement School District will authorize nine charter schools to take over more city schools in the fall of 2014.

The ASD was created by the state General Assembly to turn around the schools in the bottom 5 percent in achievement. It has five years to get students performing in the top 25 percent. Of the 83 schools statewide that fall into that category, 68 are in Memphis.

The ASD is directly operating some schools and hiring charters to run others. The growth of ASD charters and private charters in Memphis has been a cause for alarm in some local education circles. The main complaints have been that so many charters suck funding away from regular public schools and put teachers’ jobs in jeopardy because the charters are bringing in new teachers.

There is some validity to those concerns, but that should not be a reason to stop the movement toward innovative educational methods that can help students better master or catch up on being proficient in core subjects. That is particularly important when one considers that many of the schools under or going under ASD auspices have been failing for years.

Time will tell if the ASD can meet its five-year mission. Perhaps it will not be successful in all the schools it takes over. But any progress the ASD schools can make is better than the continuation of the status quo.