Education Establishment Runs From Its Own Customers | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: This week's "Daily Journal" guest columnist is Contributor Donna Martinez, Carolina Journal, Radio Co-Host, John Hood Publisher, and Right Angles blogger.

    RALEIGH     Visit fast-food restaurants in March, and you'll notice fish sandwiches atop the menus and order screens. It's the Lenten season, a time when many believers, particularly Catholics, abstain from eating meat on Fridays as an act of sacrifice and preparation for Easter.

    The appearance of the fish sandwich during Lent is a simple but great example of market forces at work. In fact, one of my favorites - the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish - was created five decades ago to lure customers from a competing restaurant that was nearly crushing Lou Groen's new McDonald's.

    In the heavily Catholic Cincinnati area of the late '50s and early '60s, McDonald's didn't offer a fish sandwich. But Groen's competition did. Keep in mind that most Catholics abstained from meat every Friday during that era, making Groen's restaurant a wasteland on Fridays. His challenge was to figure out a way to give Catholics a Friday dish. His answer was an even tastier fish sandwich.

    First, Groen reportedly had to win over McDonald's creator Ray Kroc, who didn't want his stores smelling of fish and had high hopes for a cheese-and-grilled-pineapple concoction. After cajoling from Groen, Kroc agreed to test both sandwiches on Good Friday 1962. The Hula Burger, purchased by just six brave souls, lost out to the 350 who snatched up Groen's fish sandwich.

    Groen's willingness to compete, coupled with fear of losing his livelihood, transformed his business. The same savvy and courage is at work every day in every sector as owners compete to build sales, expand product lines, and make payroll.

    If only more policymakers and politicians understood that a willingness to compete can also transform the public sector. But instead of embracing the opportunity, some public officials fear competition and heap scorn on those who champion it.

    Look no further than entrenched opposition from North Carolina's education establishment to offering parents more options for how and where their kids are educated. Oddly, defenders of the status quo subject the closed system of traditional public schools to an impossible standard: to be all things to all children and all families.

    Thankfully, critics' obstructionism hasn't deterred advocates for kids left behind. In the mid-1990s, North Carolina's choice movement dragged the establishment kicking and screaming into the public charter school arena. Two years ago, the Republican-led General Assembly removed the arbitrary 100-school charter cap. The result is that approximately 50,000 students are educated in 107 charter schools.

    But 107 schools aren't enough to meet demand. State data indicate about 30,000 kids are on waiting lists, and nearly half of North Carolina's 100 counties will not have a charter option when doors open for the 2013-14 school year.

    Education entrepreneurs have responded to market demand, just as Lou Groen did 50 years ago. They've created schools parents are proactively choosing. The State Board of Education has approved 23 charters to open this fall. Seventy applications to start new charters next fall have been filed with the Department of Public Instruction.

    Since most charters are concentrated in metropolitan areas, many rural North Carolina kids and parents are still on the outside looking in. That's why Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina has started a program to help those seeking to open charters in rural counties with their applications and business plans.

    But there's a major threat to charters, and it comes from the State Board of Education's regulations. As John Locke Foundation Director of Research and Education Studies Terry Stoops points out, some regulations applied to charters are harsher than those applied to traditional schools. Take the policy of closure. A charter school that has three years of low academic achievement will be shut down. Good. Problem is, a traditional school with the same record won't be shut down. It will be propped up with more resources and attention.

    Add in another half dozen or so additional regulatory hurdles, and you've got a plan to stifle competition and innovation. And that's exactly what North Carolinians don't want, according to polling by the Center for Education Reform. Seven out of 10 North Carolina voters supported the creation of charter schools, including 81 percent of Republicans, 59 percent of Democrats, and 67 percent of independents.

    So why is the education establishment running away from its own customers?
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