Education: Exercising Choice in Virginia

In America, school choice is widespread -- unless you're poor.

In few places is this truer than in Virginia. Middleand upper-income families can exercise school choice by moving to one of the many suburban districts surrounding cities like my hometown of Richmond. They can also maneuver through the system to send their kids to the few really good public schools that exist in cities like Richmond, allowing them to feel virtuous for supporting the "public schools" while protecting their children from the problems that plague the schools overall. Or, as many of the families in my old neighborhood did, they simply opt out by sending their children to one of the popular private schools in the area.

There are other, publicly financed choices available to students in Virginia who are fortunate enough to have high test scores and GPAs -- those students can attend one of the "governor's" schools or other specialized magnet programs in the state, two of which recently made Newsweek's list of the most "elite" public high schools in the country.

I was one of those fortunate students, and attended the Maggie Walker Governor's School in Richmond after an elementary and middle school education in Richmond Public Schools. But for many of my elementary and middle school classmates, there were no publicly financed choices available, especially for those students who were not in the honors track. And, 13 years later, it seems that Virginia still has no interest in providing those students with the same high-quality, "elite" options that are available to the overwhelmingly middleand upper-income students who attend the state's publicly funded governor's schools.

CHARTER schools -- independently run public schools of choice -- offer the best way to expand the number of public school choices available to students and to begin to provide my public school classmates with high-quality options that don't require high test scores. Charter schools must accept all students who apply to attend and, if they are oversubscribed, charter schools use a lottery to decide which students will enroll. Despite being open to everyone, several charter schools top the U.S News and World Report list of the best high schools in the country alongside the elite magnets like Virginia's highly regarded Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

That level of success is why President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are giving states that encourage charter school growth preference in distributing some of the $4.3 billion in "Race to the Top" funds intended to spur dramatic improvements in public schools. Virginia's laughable charter school policy will not help the state get a piece of that pie. Only four charter schools have opened in the state, in contrast with 4,600 charter schools nationwide.

One charter school is slated to open in Richmond in 2010, but only after a series of delays and constant resistance from the Richmond School Board. Virginia's law allows charter schools to be approved only by their local school district, essentially requiring the charter school to apply to its competitor -- the school district -- for the ability to operate. It's as absurd as asking McDonald's to sign off on the opening of Burger Kings. This policy necessarily limits the number of schools that will open and leads to charter schools jumping through political hoops in order to get approval. It also does little to ensure that charter schools will be high-quality or innovative.

VIRGINIANS have embraced choice for middleand upper-income families and for students who have high test scores. Virginia school officials have embraced choice only insofar as they control the choices. The message of President Obama and Secretary Duncan is one state leaders should heed by making charter schooling a real option here in the commonwealth.

More choice in education isn't at odds with great public schools for all students; it's an essential strategy for reaching that goal and ensuring that every child in Virginia has access to the same kind of excellent educational options that were available to me.

Erin Dillon is a senior policy analyst at Education Sector, an independent think tank in Washington, D.C. Contact her at (202) 552-2846 or .