This country has been built on innovation and ingenuity. When it comes to American education however, we are far too cautious. For us to succeed as a nation, and for our students to achieve, we need to be vigilant, constantly reevaluating progress and challenging the status-quo, calling into question existing systems and the opinions of the majority.

We need to examine the fundamentals that are the basis for end results; what is the rationale for the existing academic calendar structure and school schedule? We should be calling into question issues such as standards of student-teacher ratio and class size, and examine learning methodology and teacher preparedness—and awareness. Implementing new education technologies in the classroom can help young educators struggling to connect with students innovate in their lessons, understand their role and communicate more effectively in school and beyond. Charter schools and the unique freedom and flexibility they enjoy have brought about enormous leaps in the quality of students’ education, immense rises in academic achievement across the states, and brighter futures for the nation’s most needy children.

Gone are the days when a school in a community would be limited by distance and cost from availing its students of every imaginable lesson that exists in the world to enhance their learning. First and foremost, it requires listening to the students and directing their educational experience in totally new ways – and then talking about it!

Every effort must be made to bring innovative technologies to our schools. The traditional systems of pre-K, K-12 and higher education should not shackle our approach to improving education. Government should prioritize and expand support for innovative education by partnering with agencies that oversee telecommunications and transportation to drive the digital super highway further into rural communities and thus permit them to access the best of education that currently escapes their remote areas, via technology.

Innovation in and of itself is meant to be “disruptive.” Merely introducing devices in the classroom or breaking ground on a new building focuses solely on inputs, and doesn’t consider the most important component to learning—the outputs and results.

Charter schools have since their genesis been brilliant laboratories of innovation, born themselves in states’ efforts to disrupt districts’ exclusive franchise over education. Since the first charter school law was passed in Minnesota a quarter-century ago, the schools of choice have united people from diverse backgrounds and lifestyles seeking more personalized and innovative public education to meet student needs in ways that traditional public schools have often failed to do.

Check out these videos from charters who venture beyond the norm to innovate in their schools; hand-picked from the video submissions to CER’s “Hey John Oliver, Back Off My Charter School!” Video Contest held last Fall.

“School choice” means giving parents the power and opportunity to choose the schools their children attend.

Charter schools are public schools that provide unique educational services to students, or deliver services in ways that the traditional public schools do not offer. They provide an alternative to the cookie-cutter district school model. Charters survive — and succeed — because they operate on the principles of choice, accountability and autonomy not readily found in traditional public schools.

How did charter schooling really get started? 

Long before there were national associations and organizations working to promote the schools, individuals launched the charter movement with strategy and resolve. Charter school pioneers talk about their experiences above.

Today we’re highlighting brilliant videos from charter schools who were the runners-up of CER’s “Hey John Oliver, Back Off My Charter!” Video Contest:

• Gary Comer College Prep
• Southland College Prep Charter High School
• Inlet Grove Community High School
• STRIVE Prep SMART Academy
• Purpose Preparatory Academy

Check out all of the contest entrants’ videos here.

GET INVOLVED. For the movement to grow and meet the demand of parents in need of education alternatives, it’s essential to showcase the hard work charter school leaders and educators are doing day in and day out. Help celebrate #CharterSchoolsWeek by signing and sharing the pledge to support public charter schools!

Our public school leaders have been asking for years for government to remove the handcuffs. They welcome and need the ability to change their operations, and drive a new education culture.  People who want to start new schools need freedom and autonomy and they need a level playing field. The barriers to starting a school in some states are too onerous. Some states require that new schools only use “proven concepts” for their curricula or their school model. Others require that teachers have a particular kind of certification or even that they have experience starting up other schools before they can be authorized. Charter schools began as an idea to innovate and to free schools from arcane systems and over-reaching regulations. This school choice option has united people from diverse background and lifestyles who have wanted more personalized and innovative public education to meet students’ needs in ways that traditional public schools often failed to do.  We encourage government to be more flexible and we encourage Charter School advocates to push for charter laws that allow operational freedom, free from top-down compliance and burdensome “one size” fits all approaches which discourage charter schools from starting or expanding.  Flexibility is crucial to innovation and opportunity and the key to continued growth and excellence in charter schools across America.

Today we’re highlighting more videos from charter schools who participated in CER’s “Hey John Oliver, Back Off My Charter!” Video Contest:

Inspiring Minds

Adventurous Schools

Check out all of the contest entrants’ videos here.

We must be vigilant to overcome challenges, including the overreach of regulation that is stifling a vibrant reform effort

May 1, 2017 — We are pleased to join with our colleagues around the country to celebrate National Charter Schools Week, and all those, especially at the community level, who have steadfastly committed time, energy and bold ideas for nearly 26 years. We hope everyone joins us in celebrating the schools, teachers, communities and innovators who have elevated education to new heights of excellence and performance.

The Center for Education Reform is proud to have been a leader in the fight for expanded opportunity for all children since 1993, and to have helped launch NCSW when the movement was just defining itself. This innovative and path breaking reform of public education has been heralded by each Administration since the first charter school opened in 1992.

In his inaugural proclamation of NCSW in 2000, President Clinton declared that charter schools “are helping us to meet many of our Nation’s most important education goals.”

Today, in President Trump’s 2017 Presidential Proclamation, President Trump called upon us all to embrace the choice that charters represent for so many. “By expanding school choice and providing more educational opportunities for every American family, we can help make sure that every child has an equal shot at achieving the American Dream. More choices for our students will make our schools better for everybody.”

Indeed, such choice affords families and educators the opportunity to voluntarily seek the schools that best meet their vision of education. Charter schools succeed when they have independence, flexibility, and freedom to innovate. It is essential we preserve and advance these core principles.

Here’s just but one of thousands of examples of how freedom and flexibility drive unique, successful learning environments. Today we share with you the winner of CER’s much publicized video contest last fall, Natomas Charter School, who shows what’s possible when educators and parents have the opportunity to put their dreams into practice.

“… the world realizes that education is an archaic model that needs updating – that’s why we have charter schools. We experiment, challenge, create – we pioneer change in hopes that other traditional schools will follow suit,” a Natomas student said in the winning video submission.