Aspire, one of the nation¡¦s most successful charter school networks, wants to turn two abandoned warehouses in South-Central Los Angeles into schools.Parents in the high poverty, mostly Latino neighborhood would love that: Hundreds are on waiting lists, but Don Shalvey, who runs Aspire, said he can¡¦t afford the 6 percent-7 percent interest rates on the construction loans. If there were a way to peel that rate back to 4 percent, he said, construction could start and hundreds of students would be rescued from overcrowded, under performing schools.
Don Shalvey, meet Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools chief just tapped to be President-Elect Barack Obama¡¦s secretary of education.
Mr. Shalvey needs inexpensive financing to launch high-quality schools; Mr. Duncan needs low-cost ideas to improve education in tough economic times. By guaranteeing Mr. Shalvey¡¦s construction loans, the education department could lower his cost of borrowing a few percentage points and improve educational options in South Central Los Angeles.
Assuming Aspire repays the loans, that¡¦s the sort of affordable idea Mr. Duncan needs at a time of financial crisis and soaring budget deficits. A few others, some of them leftovers from the Bush administration:
„P Renew No Child Left Behind. President-Elect Obama won the election on a message of change, but not everything President George W. Bush did deserves to be upended. President Bush considers No Child to be his domestic legacy, and for good reason. The law has worked. States such as Massachusetts, which drew up the most rigorous standards and accountability, have gotten the biggest payoffs. The program does have flaws: It over-identifies troubled schools; its tutoring and school transfer options are flawed; and most of the state testing is too simplistic. So, fix what needs to be fixed, and move on.
„P Target Preschool Money Toward Quality Improvements. In a perfect world, states and the federal government would make high-quality preschools available to every 3-year-old and 4-year-old in the nation, but, in this imperfect economic environment, it makes sense to pare back President-Elect Obama¡¦s promise to invest $10 billion in early childhood education for now and focus on helping states identify the elements of effective preschools.
„P Boost High Performing Charter Schools. Aspire, with 21 schools (the goal is 65 by 2015), is one of several charger groups--publicly funded, independently managed schools--with successful track records. Other well-regarded regional or national groups include Uncommon Schools, Green Dot, KIPP, Mastery and Achievement First. Helping these groups open new schools, with loan guarantees or cheap rent, is an ideal government role.
„P Extend Accountability to Higher Education. President Bush¡¦s education secretary, Margaret Spellings, has been working to provide more information about graduation rates and how much students learn at various institutions. That¡¦s not popular in academia, but, with soaring tuition and fees, it makes sense.
The United States is falling behind other countries in education, a field it has dominated for years. Reversing that slide requires not just ¡§change we need,¡¨ as President-Elect Obama put it on the campaign trail, but reforms we can afford.
Duncan
