Exclusive Interview with Kara Kerwin, President, The Center for Education Reform
By Mark Lerner
Examiner
November 10, 2014
It was a most appropriate time to be interviewing Ms. Kerwin, the president of The Center for Education Reform. November 1st marked the one year anniversary of her assuming her new position. The mission of CER is “to accelerate the growth of the education reform movement in ways that make available to families new and meaningful choices, give parents fundamental power over their children’s education, and allow teachers and schools to innovate in ways that transform student learning.” I asked her if the group had a preferred school choice mechanism for accomplishing their goals.
“There is not one type of reform that we favor over the other and we don’t discriminate based on tax-status or whether education is delivered in a brick and mortar environment or online, publicly or privately,” the CER president answered without hesitation. “We are most interested in striving for educational excellence by advancing all opportunities for children. When Jeanne Allen founded this organization 21 years ago there was no one behind this kind of effort. Our group is bridging the gap between policy and practice. We specialize in empowering people doing the work on the ground. We are striving to give parents the fundamental right over their child’s education through coaching leadership, making connections, and remaining principled on policy. We provide data analysis in order to support parents and policymakers. Finally we support parents in their efforts to implement high standards in their schools.”
As an illustration of the type of work of which CER is proud, Ms. Kerwin talked to me about Leah Vukmir, who since 2011 has been a distinguished member of the Wisconsin State Senate. Prior to serving in the State Senate she was a representative in the Wisconsin Assembly. Ms. Vukmir is a registered nurse and certified pediatric nurse practitioner with 25 years of experience. She became interested in running for office when she became frustrated with the reading program in her kid’s school. The Center for Education Reform assisted her in creating the group Parents Raising Educational Standards in Schools (PRESS) which has led to significant literacy improvements for low income Wisconsin children.
Janet Barresi was another individual who CER helped to further educational freedom. Ms. Barresi became the first new state superintendent in Oklahoma in 20 years in 2011. For 24 years she was a dentist with her own private practice. CER supported her efforts to create the state charter law and then open the first charter school, Independence Charter Middle School, in 2000. In 2003 Ms. Barresi created the Harding Charter Preparatory High School. Both charters focus on serving inner-city students, many living in poverty.
“We aid people to become part of the movement along side a broader network of reformers which we have the expertise to do,” Ms. Kerwin explained. But at the same time that CER has made significant progress, Ms. Kerwin is definitely not satisfied as to where the movement currently stands.
“Two and a half million children currently attend a charter school in this country, while a million more are on waiting lists,” the CER president informed me. “About 300,000 children take advantage of tuition tax credits and voucher programs, yet close to three million more opportunities have been created by state legislation that are not being fully implemented. Five million more children are in private school. However, there are 49 million kids attending traditional public schools. This means that only five percent of school aged children are currently utilizing school choice. While this is the current educational landscape, devastatingly, only 34 percent of American students by the eighth grade are proficient in both reading and math.”
It is this public policy problem that CER is striving day and night to fix. It is quite a challenge with close to a two million dollar a year budget and roughly 15 full time equivalent employees. But it is amazing what CER has accomplished. Ms. Kerwin is extremely proud of the 160 million impressions a year that CER receives in the media. Her goal is nothing less than to influence the school choice movement to make it “bigger, better, and grow it faster.”
Ms. Kerwin related to me that CER is not a lobbying organization because “we are not in the business of buying influence.” In addition, she said, “We do not believe in establishing chapters. Our energy is focused on motivating and elevating the voice of the people on the ground, in their communities, across the states. We educate policymakers, thought leaders, and parents, and are not afraid to create the necessary friction, calling out friends and detractors alike, as we strive for whatever is needed to do what’s right for kids.”
She went on to expound that while CER is completely agnostic as to the form school choice takes, the organization does care about the structure of particular laws.
“Recently we ranked tax credit and voucher plans, which made some public officials uncomfortable. But after we did it people thanked us for the effort. Every year we weigh in on the quality of charter laws in each of the states. CER is unique in focusing on the implementation of those laws, not just how they measure up to some model, but how they result in greater opportunities for students. We help develop education literacy and provide meaningful data to make sure local lawmakers get it right,” Ms. Kerwin detailed.
Part of the goal, the CER president mentioned, is to have states take responsibility for their own legislation. “We know that strong charter school laws and robust charter school authorizers lead to higher student academic achievement. We actually prefer that there are multiple chartering bodies so that they can bring in new practices, while we caution against over-regulating schools to death so they can innovate and be successful. Of course, here in Washington D.C., due to the excellent charter law and the outstanding efforts of the Public Charter School Board,charter schools have exceeded state averages for nine straight years.”
The CER president also emphasized the crucial role that charter boards play. “Charter school boards need help in understanding how important they are to the success of the schools they oversee,” Ms. Kerwin asserted. “We need to give the charter school laws an opportunity to work and there are lots of people out there who have the knowledge and experience to get this right.”
It became abundantly clear to me during our conversation that Ms. Kerwin is an expert on the subject we had been discussing. I asked her how she came to CER. “I was a political science major at American University,” she informed me. “I completed an internship here during which Ms. Allen sent me to Friendship Public Charter School’s Chamberlain campus. I was truly blown away by the enthusiasm of the teachers and the engagement demonstrated by the students. I thought that this is the way public education should be accomplished. I have been at CER almost exclusively from the moment I visited Chamberlain, which equates to 15 of the last 21 years.”
I then asked Ms. Kerwin to describe what it is like following in the footsteps of Ms. Allen. She could not wait to answer this question. “These are big shoes to fill. For years Jeanne was alone in this fight. She has taken a lot of arrows over time. I respect everything she has done. Jeanne has challenged me to be better, to grow the organization, to do things my way, and most importantly to get more kids in choice schools. She provided me with a fantastic foundation. Now we need to conceptualize what success looks like. With a dedicated staff, strong leadership from CER’s Board of Directors, including DC’s own education reform pioneers Donald Hense and Kevin P. Chavous, we are constantly evaluating our impact and progress toward this vision.”
Ms. Kerwin then became philosophical. “We must get away from the one size fits all mentality. We have to ask ourselves whether a particular school provides value and whether it is doing well intentionally. But you have to understand that the way we are educating children right now is not working for the great majority of kids. Local school boards do not know how to manage the facilities under their care. They are controlled by special interests. Superintendents come and go. Teachers are not treated as the professionals they are. We need to eliminate teacher tenure. It is all about the standards we set from day one. The traditional school system should not be allowed to stand any longer. It needs to be completely turned upside down. I hope in my lifetime I’ll get to see localities educating their youth exercising 100 percent choice and demanding accountability for all schools.”
