Serving Our Children
Charter Schools and the Reform of American Public Education
Description:... Public education is failing America's children--especially those in poor urban areas. D.C. Council member Kevin Chavous has long been an outspoken advocate for educational reform that serves the needs of all of our children. In Serving Our Children, Mr. Chavous, who has been at the forefront of the charter school movement, explores what his city has learned from the charter school experience and what it means to American public education as a whole. In just five short years, under Mr. Chavous's leadership, charter schools in Washington went from zero to nearly forty and currently enroll about 11,000 students in six schools. These schools provide more than traditional public schools can--wrap around services to poor children who are hungry, inadequately clothed, lacking sleep, and sometimes exposed to physical and emotional violence. Mr. Chavous uses D.C.'s charter schools to demonstrate how their greater flexibility and autonomy allows them to better serve the social, economic, language, and educational needs of students and their families--services these children need to succeed in school. He admits that charter schools are not without their critics and explains why, but he argues that these schools are an important model for the educational reform that must take place if our children are to carry America into a brighter future.
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