Recently there has been a lot written in the Providence Journal and on Rhode Island’s Future about the proposed concept of “Mayoral Academies” — charter schools that can be created by mayors of cities and towns who want to offer new educational options for their communities. On the one side, Paul Bovenzi, a teacher and blogger at Rhode Island’s Future argues that these Mayoral academies are nothing more than a way to avoid dealing with teacher’s unions, and for school administrators to be free to hire and fire without due cause or process. On the other side, Mayor Dan McKee of Cumberland and Julia Steiny of Projo’s Edwatch argue that for too long Rhode Island policies has been preventing needed reform movements such as charter schools from entering into our state and providing alternatives.

The issue of charter schools is a complicated one. We have a charter school here in Cranston that is partially run by a union. It seems that the option of a charter school can and should be opened up, but that it needs to be done so that our teachers can move flexibly into the positions provided by the new schools. Paul Bovenzi makes reference in the end of his response to Julia Steiny’s column to a charter school system that would work for teachers:

As a teacher, if a charter school has an idea I find intriguing, and allows me to stay working under the contract, and has a fair student selection process, I’m all for it. You can sign me up.

This issue needs more discussion and more careful planning to make it work in Rhode Island. I would be interested in thoughts or ideas from readers for how we can make the public school/charter school collaboration work.