Archive for August, 2007

Threats to Democratic Schools

Friday, August 17th, 2007

Two of the most note-worthy examples of publicly-funded democratic schools have been seriously challenged in the past year, leading to the closure of one and the very real closure threat of the other.

Village School of Northfield, Minnesota was a democratic charter school that ran for 9 years up until 2006, when the now-discredited and mysteriously absent Northfield Police Chief claimed the school did not adequately deal with “assault” (or, an argument involving spitting and hair-pulling, according to Village School founder Olivia Frey), and the School Board voted not to renew the charter based on the Chief’s report and the students’ low scores on standardized tests. Read Olivia’s excellent recent article in the Star Tribune for a different perspective on these circumstances.

And just this summer, Blue Mountain School in Oregon was faced with a similar circumstance when their School Board voted not to renew the school’s charter. As Blue Mountain co-founder Laura Stine described in an email recently, the political support the school originally had has vanished with the change-over in the political administration:

The reason we have succeeded as well as we have is because we have been clever enough to find the loopholes (openings) in the law and have done the ‘politics’ to find people with authority to agree that in fact the loopholes (openings) are there and allowed us to slip in.

In every case, I’ve been involved in, what happens next is that the authority person changes and the next person in the place of honor decrees the loophole doesn’t exist and we’re toast.

Olivia Frey, Laura Stine, and the various staff and families associated with these two schools will not go down so quickly, however. Olivia and others in Northfield have continued to work with many of the former Village School students, founding an unschooling intentional learning community called Starwalkers. Meanwhile, Blue Mountain School can at least open this year during the appeals process for the School Board decision.

However, Laura may be right when she says:

“I don’t think we’ll ever be able to count on having democratic schools as a choice among the publicly funded options until we get the model into the law and not dependent on searching for and utilizing loopholes and a savior.”

Let’s get to work.

Posted in Democratic Education, Education Policy, Education in Minnesota | No Comments »

Youth Councils

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

Young people have the right to be part of decision-making processes at all levels: governmental, educational, organizational, etc. Not only do all people deserve to have a voice in decisions that affect them, but we miss out on a wealth of experience and insight by ignoring and not including the voices of young people.

In recent years states and cities around the country have been creating youth advisory councils that meet to discuss issues and make recommendations (and even draft legislation in the case of the Maine Legislative Youth Advisory Council). While this falls short of giving all youth a voice through youth suffrage (the next civil and human rights issue facing us), these councils give youth an authentic forum to give their input on issues directly to governors, mayors, legislators, and other officials.

Last month the Forum for Youth Investment came out with a great guide describing youth councils and offering extensive help on how to create such councils: here is a PDF of that document, “Building Effective Youth Councils.“.

Maine became a catalyst in this area by creating its council in 2001. Since then, New Mexico, Washington, New Hampshire, Maryland, Louisiana, and Nevada have similarly created councils. Two other states already had long-running advisory groups: North Carolina and Arizona, while cities with youth councils include Boston (MA), Hampton (VA), San Francisco (CA), Des Moines (IA), and Grand Rapids (MI).

The National Conference of State Legislators’ Civic and Policy Engagement program includes a list and description of some of the state youth councils.

In addition to the NCSL and the Forum, several other organizations advocate for authentic youth voice and rights, and are worth checking out. See my post on Youth Democracy and Participaiton for links.

While I will continue to support the broader policy of youth suffrage, these councils can be highly effective ways in which to offer youth some measure of involvement in decision-making. Moreover, these forums can serve to demonstrate to policy-makers and the general public that young people can and do have important insights into policy and societal issues, and in this way youth councils may be one of the most significant ways in which to lead to greater youth voice and youth rights.

Posted in Youth Voice/Youth Rights | No Comments »

National Education Standards

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007

At its annual Legislative Summit this week in Boston, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) declared strong opposition to the creation of national academic standards. Hopefully the federal legislators who will be debating the re-authorization of NCLB next month will take this statement by state legislators seriously.

National academic standards will increase the already huge gap between the individual lives of children and the process of education, leading to ever more alienation of young people, narrowing of the curriculum, stifling of the learning environment, and frustration on the part of teachers, parents, and students.

Unfortunately there is support out there for national academic standards, especially from certain “liberal” Democrats who mistakenly believe that this coercive, one-size-fits-all approach will help young people and especially minority and low-income youth to gain important knowledge and skills. Senators Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy are among those who have noted support for national standards. More than anything else, young people need true respect for their individuality, a chance to use and strengthen their own voices, and the opportunity to pursue their interests and needs.

Hopefully more groups such as NCSL will come out against the increase of academic standards. Yet NCSL itself could go a great deal farther and express opposition to any uniform academic standards, recognizing that local schools, educators, parents, and especially young people themselves are most qualified to determine the path of a young person’s education.

Posted in Education Policy | No Comments »