RAISE YOUR coffee cups this morning to the state’s Board of Education. It deserves a toast. At long last, Quest Middle School can open its doors in West Little Rock. This coming August, that charter school is to welcome its first students-to the relief of many a family that’s been waiting for a long time for a chance like this. A chance for a real education for its kids, not just another failing school propped up by little but inertia.
Late Friday, the state’s Board of Education voted to uphold the earlier decision by Arkansas’ still new Charter Authorizing Panel to allow this new school. Which is understandable. It would have been awkward for the state to overturn the first charter approved under its new law.
This new panel was told to review, vet and generally put applications for charter schools through a detailed examination. And it did. With the welcome result that Quest passed every test. Congratulations to everybody involved.
Those arguing against the charter-who were mostly working for school boards and the status quo in general-claimed that setting up such a charter school would hurt the chances of passing a millage to build a new middle school in the same neighborhood.
But how many years have families in West Little Rock begged for their own school there? Now those families have banded together and brought a respected charter-school operation to their neighborhood. Only when they were succeeding at last did Little Rock’s school board decide it wanted to build a new school there. Wonderful thing, competition. It can challenge all to innovate.
The solution to this “problem” should be obvious: Do both. Build both a traditional public school and allow the charter. And let the best school win. Maybe they both will-and both thrive. And the biggest winners will be the kids and their futures.
Charter schools-or sometimes just the prospect of one-can spur school boards into action. The moral of this story: Competition works. Let’s have more of it.
Editorial, Pages 16 on 01/16/2014