The Collaboration of Angels and Superman

“Waiting for Superman” has sparked public debate and discourse centered on education reform and America’s children. Thanks to the star power and financial wherewithal of Oprah Winfrey, the documentary film “Waiting for Superman” about the challenges facing America’s education system is now newsworthy and featured in multiple news items, blogs, articles etc. Oprah coincided a discussion of the film with the donation by Oprah’s Angel Network of $1 million each to the following six Charter Management Organizations: The Mastery Charter Schools of Philadelphia,; Aspire Public Schools in California; the Denver School of Science and Technology; the LEARN Charter School in Chicago; the New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy; and the YES Prep Public Schools in Houston.

Oprah’s show was dedicated to education reform and featured Davis Guggenheim (director of "Waiting for Superman") and Bill Gates (co-director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). The show highlighted failing school systems, inner city school disparities, mediocre teaching and lack of resources/funding. Those items of concern are universally known and find agreement with most stakeholders. The controversy around “Waiting for Superman” and the Oprah show’s panel is that both appear to suggest that the answer to all of this is to create more quality charter schools.

The movie concentrates on five children: Bianca, in kindergarten, and Francisco, a first-grader, both applying to the Harlem Success Academy; two fifth-graders, Anthony in Washington and Daisy in East Los Angeles; and Emily, an eighth-grader in Silicon Valley. Since most charter schools have limited space, these five children – and the other many children interested in enrolling in impacted charter programs – are subject to a lottery process. It is heartbreaking but a random process is what will decide which child is afforded which opportunity or lack of opportunity.

Education proponent Diane Ravitch, having once stood on the side of charter schools, is now against the creation. She and some others conjecture that charter schools don’t create reform for all but only for a small number and, in fact, hinder the ability of the system itself to successfully reform. The one place I always come back to is this …. When you are making an education decision in the best interest of your son or daughter .. do you want he/she to stay in a behemoth of a broken system until it can figure out how to fix itself – will you sacrifice your child’s shot at a quality education on the altar of long term system reform? I don’t think so. Ask education proponents, teachers, advocates where they send their children …. They aren’t attending failing schools – many in fact attend private school options. Why is this? Because they can afford an option that provides the best benefit for their child and that is what matters to them. Why shouldn’t all parents – even those that can least afford an option – have the same opportunity without being lambasted for destroying a system that is already broken and moving at a snails pace, if at all, to renew itself?

My thoughts – and I welcome yours as well – is that “Waiting for Superman” draws attention to the crisis and to charter schools as part of the solution – not a replacement but an additional resource to the gargantuan task of meeting the needs of all students – Whatever it takes, all students deserve a quality education.