Charter schools = competition

I've been someone who until recently thought the Daviess County and Owensboro school districts should strongly consider merging. During one of our Emerge Owensboro leadership classes last fall, however, a local school administrator made the point that there's a healthy "competition" between the districts that keeps both of them striving to do better. He went on to say that merging them would take away that incentive. I agree.

The Kentucky Senate has passed a bill that would bring charter schools to Kentucky. With the opposition of the KEA established, the House is not likely to approve the bill before the session ends on April 15th. The charter school issue went from nowhere to the front seat in recent weeks as Kentucky competed for--and lost--nationwide competition for federal Race to the Top funds. The state lost several points because charter schools are not currently allowed.

I'd like to see more discussion of charter schools in the legislature before they're approved because the issue is too important to not be thoroughly examined. That can come in a special session or during the 2011 General Assembly, but I believe more "competition" in public schools would be a good option. We're blessed in Owensboro-Daviess County and other areas of Kentucky to have good public schools, but education is too important to not always be looking for new and better ways.

Critics say charter schools are not always successful, but with many states having them, Kentucky is in good position to examine what works and what doesn't and design them accordingly. Kentucky's kids deserve no less.