“I’m from the state of Ohio, so I think I look at things a little differently because most of our charter schools are not public charter schools. So, you may hear me coming from a very different vantage point.”

- Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio)

(Just one of the headscratchers from last week’s House Education and Labor Committee hearing on charters.)

Today, the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on charter schools in order to look at “building on what works“, based on the success of schools such as Roxbury Prep in Boston, Green Dot in Los Angeles, and KIPP all over. Some highlights:

- Assistant Deputy Secretary Jim Shelton dispelling the myth that charters cream the best students from their conventional counterparts

- Rep. McKeon’s acknowledgment that charters are essential to turning around our nation’s failing school system

- Steve Barr’s discussion of Green Dots’ efforts to turnaround L.A.’s troubled Locke High School

- John King’s assertion that “our students look the same as conventional public school students, but are outperforming them”

- Jim Goenner’s description of his battle scars earned by closing schools because it was in the best interest of kids

The real takeaway was not replication, but responsibility:

- The responsibility of charters to continue to drive innovation in the education sector

- The primary responsibility states have for improving charter school laws

- The responsibility of authorizers to make certain schools are serving their students first and foremost

One big responsibility all charter advocates must continue to be mindful of is making sure lawmakers understand what charter schools actually are and how they serve their communities and the country at large.

This last point was made painfully clear in the waning minutes of questioning this morning as certain Congressmen and women illustrated their utter lack of knowledge, understanding and/or acceptance of these innovative schools, even after two hours of success stories.

The battle continues…

(For our live impressions straight from the hearing, please follow our Twitter stream.)

We seem to be more concerned today with the physical treatment of terrorists than the health and welfare of our most impoverished children. While the president works hard to compensate to our international friends for what he perceives as American arrogance, he is missing the biggest opportunity to show this nation really cares by permitting a small but successful lifeline for 2,000 Washington, DC poor children to die a slow death.

That lifeline is a scholarship program providing children from low-income homes a ticket to attend a private school of their choice, with the cost being borne by the government, in lieu of attending a neighborhood school near drug dens, pollution and barbed wire fences.

We have been talking to real people in Washington, DC about this program. We have gone to the same neighborhoods that produce the appalling statistics paraded daily in the news. Most residents do not know about this program. Those that do, do not understand why Congress — or anyone — would oppose it. There must be something else to it, they say? Why is it only 2,000 kids?

The reality is that they expect their leadership to know what’s good for kids. And most loyal DC citizens believe that, indeed, they have a friend in the White House. That may be the case on some issues, but not with respect to real education reform.

In the last few days alone, Mr. Obama has taken a pretty bad beating from friends and pundits in the news media. NPR/Fox News contributor Juan Williams has taken him to task. Staunch supporter and advisor, Kevin Chavous in partnership with Anthony Williams, former City Councilman and Mayor, respectively, challenged him to accept the program, and the notion of choice, for all needy children. Perhaps a little farther from home but just as sane was George Will’s column pointing out the one-two punch to the program thrown by Duncan. “Not content with seeing the program set to die after the 2009-10 school year, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (former head of Chicago’s school system, which never enrolled an Obama child) gratuitously dashed even the limited hopes of another 200 children and their parents.”

Bloggers are working overtime on this issue, and parents are out day by day in the city rallying and talking about how best to get Congress’ attention.

Wouldn’t it be great if they could be focused more appropriately on the needs of their families, their jobs or the next big community issue of concern? These people don’t have the hundreds of paid staff that the opponents of this program employ at various education groups, unions, and government offices. The time they spend on this is entirely their own – and on their own dime –  as they are so enormously frustrated and upset that this program is, for all intents and purposes, gone.

Their only hope is that Congress will take it up again in May, and maybe in the fall they will see the fruits of their labor. We will see.

The IES impact evaluation of the 3rd year of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was quietly released today.

A Friday.

And Congress is on a two-week holiday.

Think it made a big splash?

Hiding in the bland research language are some nice findings:

• Opportunity Scholars are outpacing their former public school classmates on reading tests by a gap of more than 3 months of learning time. While their math scores are not rising at a similar rate, they average the same or slightly better than their counterparts.

• As in previous impact studies, families report that participating in the program has had a positive impact on their students, stressing safety as a primary area of satisfaction.

Bottom line (yet again): kids are learning, achieving, and thriving in safer school environments – all for a laughably smaller amount than it would cost to educate them in D.C.’s public school system.

The report will be required weekend reading for many and a more detailed analysis will come to light.

While it’s nice that Congress will have this data when re-authorization hearings convene, it would have been nicer if they had actually been around to receive the report.

It looks like Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), a longtime proponent of D.C. voting rights, would like to hinge his support of District residents winning a voice in Congress on further renewal of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a voucher system allowing more than 1,700 D.C. children to attend schools of their choosing after having been failed by those to which they are traditionally assigned.

Perhaps the Senator read this.

Or, he could have watched this:

(h/t to Flypaper)