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March 28, 2007

Kwame's history with charters

In response to my post from yesterday on Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his newly rediscovered support for charter schools, Education Sector analyst Sara Mead told me via e-mail this isn't his first flip-flop on the issue:

Kilpatrick was initially supportive of Thompson's plan and joined outgoing Gov. Engler in late 2002 to propose legislation that would allow the 15 new schools in Detroit; he also participated in negotiations with Granholm and the Republicans in the state legislature during 2003 and was believed to support the compromise they worked out in September that year to raise the state's university-authorized charter cap by 150. But then Kwame pulled his support in late September, shortly before Granholm also backed out of the deal.

There's more on this in Sara's report from last year.  It's stuff like this that I'd say lends credence to Eduwonk's line from that Cato forum that one of the bigger problems with education policy today is a lack of political will.  The question for me in connection with Kilpatrick is whether he's got the gumption to stick it out this time around. 

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