Good alternatives to status quo
Editorial, Republican-American, March 28, 2007

In a legislative season marked by school-reform notions ranging from worthless to wildly expensive, an advocacy organization called the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) offers a refreshingly reasonable prescription for the state’s ailing public schools. ConnCAN regrettably declined to touch the third rail of the education debate --vouchers for private and parochial schools -- but it offers a hint of promise where the competing proposals begin and end with bigger allocations to the public-school monopoly.

The essence of ConnCAN's strategy is to break free of the hidebound government-school model and allow innovation. Charter schools have proved themselves in Connecticut, especially in New Haven; ConnCAN would increase the number of such schools significantly. Sadly, Achievement First, which operates the acclaimed Amistad Academy in New Haven, is expanding into New York instead because of laws limiting the number of charter-school berths. Another innovation favored by ConnCAN is pilot schools, small high schools that like charter schools operate free of the bureaucratic obstructions that weigh down conventional public schools.

Other ConnCAN initiatives include increasing the availability of quality preschool programs to low-income families, recruiting top teachers and administrators for urban districts, and establishing accountability standards all schools must meet. The bottom line is $1.3 billion over six years, which compares favorably with Gov. M. Jodi Rell's $3.5 billion, five-year plan.

The ConnCAN program appears to have been exceptionally well thought out, in that it dares to challenge the orthodoxy in areas where it might succeed -- a spokesman acknowledges it takes baby steps in the direction of merit pay -- but avoids controversial, long-shot reforms that have no chance of legislative passage.

We remain convinced vouchers represent the best way to ignite competition among schools and re-engage parents in their children's education. But until parents use their voting rights to demand lawmakers provide them with this option, lawmakers will continue to do the bidding of public-employee unions, to whom vouchers are anathema. ConnCAN's greatest strength may be its potential to whet the public's appetite for meaningful school reform without tying up its proposals in controversy and political rhetoric.