I read it again today when an acquaintance shared with me a copy of an editorial from a Bend paper. The editorial was very sympathetic to Corbett and ended with what amounted to a prophecy of doom to the effect that Corbett Charter School is a small fish and that the Oregon Educational Complex won't tolerate it's continued existence.
But the phrase that most captivated me was the claim, which I have read in other publications, that Corbett is 'circumventing the inter-district transfer process'. One hardly knows where to begin...
My first challenge is to suppress the nonsensical feeling that this phrase had to have come from the movie Dr. Strangelove. It has an ominous, paranoid feel to it, as if the circumventing of THE INTER-DISTRICT TRANSFER PROCESS would herald the immanent demise of the Western world. The Inter-District Transfer Process, the U.S. Constitution, the Ten Commandments...are these not the cornerstones of civilization as we know it? And wouldn't we give up the other two rather than tolerate the weakening of the IDT?
But the serious point is a simple one. IT'S A CHARTER SCHOOL! Eliminating District boundaries as barriers to parent choice is the point. It's not an oversight, not a flaw. It's why the law is written as it is. It's been on the books for a decade now, and Charter Schools are operating in districts throughout East County. It was only when Corbett sponsored one that the law became a threat to the American way of life.
What is the political assumption behind the Inter-district Transfer Process? It seems to be that all parents residing within the boundaries of a school district owe a tribute to that agency regardless of their level of satisfaction with the schooling that is provided therein. I've never understood this, and it never occurred to me to tolerate it. I put my daughter in her neighborhood school for exactly one year. I believe in public education and neighborhood schools, and I was happy to enroll her near our home. I was astounded to find that in spite of her having a wonderful teacher, the culture of the school was such that she was not going to be allowed to progress at her natural rate. So I applied for (and was granted) an Inter-district Transfer. Lara received permission to attend Corbett every year for the next nine years, including when we moved to a new district. I didn't think anything of the annual ritual, as it was always approved without comment, and so was every request for students wanting to transfer out of Corbett. It was an open door. It lasted for a decade, more or less. We superintendents talked a lot about choice, about giving parents options, about cooperation. We talked about students and parents preferring smaller or larger schools and how good it was to allow them their choices.
Whether it was new leadership (Corbett's neighboring districts have gone through several superintendents each during my tenure in Corbett) or just economic stress, Corbett was put on notice that the age of cooperation was past. Fair enough. I understand that folks need to do what they think is best. But of course I thought that I would be afforded the same courtesy. Seems I was mistaken. Corbett sponsored a new Charter School and the recriminations have echoed in the press non-stop.
During the last legislative session, the Oregon Education Association, the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators and other interest groups supported legislation aimed at reinforcing the rights of districts to hold their residents captive (really, they call it 'capturing' students). This would leave school choice in tact for the wealthy, of course, but would eliminate it for the vast majority of people. The legislative attack failed, but these things have a way of coming back in subsequent sessions.
This recurrence is the future that the Bend editorial was predicting. And while I don't doubt that Corbett Charter School will be the target of a renewed legislative attack in the next session, I am not so pessimistic as our high-desert commentator. I believe that Oregon is ready to get serious about having better schools and is losing patience with the constant promise that just one more School Improvement Plan will lead us to the promised land.
So thank you, in Bend, for your good wishes. We'll see how it goes.
