May 7, 2018
Each year National Charter Schools Week gives charter advocates an opportunity not only to bring further attention to chartering and the myriad benefits it offers our children but to the elements critical for success. Let’s start the week with one major one – legislators.
Having the dedicated support of legislators as charter champions and policymakers dedicated to drafting strong charter laws that allow charter schools to maximize their reach and effectiveness is a major key. And, although there are current and former legislators who continue to push for increasing opportunity equity, autonomy and expansion of existing charter schools and construction of new ones, finding these champions is becoming a growing problem in many states.
Entrenched special interest groups wield an outsized influence when it comes to drafting legislative and developing policy. This, combined with campaigns to erode public support for charters and other reforms to expand education opportunities – and demonize their advocates – have had a chilling effect on elected officials in many states who don’t want to jeopardize their seats, or make their re-election more difficult by taking on the status quo.
This often leads “reformers” to seek out a legislative path of least resistance that will placate pro-charters people without antagonizing well-organized anti-charter forces. Unfortunately, such compromises typically lead to laws that are so diminished, or restrictive, that they do more to stifle charter growth than to encourage it.
A recent example of this can be found in Kentucky where lawmakers started out quite strong in support for a strong charter law but became skittish when it was suggested that the law might be unconstitutional (it wasn’t) and then, fears over authorizers were raised; then, there was the question of a budget. The result: a weak, watered-down charter law that severely limits charter school authorizers, doesn’t provide funding for the schools and now, more than a year later, there is no solution in sight.
Of course, Kentucky is not alone and that's the bigger problem. Too many state legislators believe that starting incrementally and growing strong over time is a great strategy, and do not want to spend the time and effort it takes to fight the status quo and craft the right policy to start. They believe that they can improve it over time. But that only happens when the law starts with the right building blocks – authorizers, autonomy, and funding. And once a law is adopted, legislators are loath to admit that it is less than it should be and adopt an attitude of “Our work is done here” in order to avoid the effort, and controversy, entailed in fixing problems of their own creation. Consequently, weak laws – and all the stifling impediments to charter growth that they create – tend to stay on the books, relatively unchanged, for years.
This, or course, isn’t always the case. Florida is an example of a dedicated, determined legislature that keeps the health of charters schools and other education opportunity initiatives at the top of its agenda. The state recently adopted a sweeping education bill that allows new Schools of Hope to be created out of the 208 failing schools in the state, as well as provided for direct funding for charter schools in recent months. House Speaker Richard Corcoran has fought lawsuits, proposals to reduce funding, add red tape and more, and each time his leadership stands as a model for how legislating can protect all schools from the intrusion of the education establishment, or the Blob.
On the other hand, as Success Academy founder Eva Moskowitz reports on this week’s Reality Check w/Jeanne Allen, policymakers who fall prey to charter opponents have allowed 17,000 students to be placed on waiting lists for her great schools. Had they the courage to follow Florida’s lead, they might be afforded the hope of accessing one of many new options that would open up if there were authority to provide more seats.
Or they could look to Arizona, whose new and increased student-centered funding extends across all public school students, including to charter school students – who are no less public because they attend a different kind of public school. Committed legislators make sure to include charter schools whenever there are important equities to be had.
It’s no secret what makes a strong law. CER has been researching, analyzing and reporting on it for 25 years!
It can be done. Legislators will listen, and will respond, especially if the chorus of voices is large enough and loud enough. It’s easy to learn how to sing when your choir includes a litany of great activists and policymakers who’ve done the hard work of figuring it all out – like Moskowitz, Governor Jeb Bush, Senator Michael Bennet, Governor Charlie Baker, Kevin Chavous, Dr. Howard Fuller.... These and thousands more are in the choir legislators need to hear.
Founded in 1993, the Center for Education Reform aims to expand educational opportunities that lead to improved economic outcomes for all Americans — particularly our youth — ensuring that conditions are ripe for innovation, freedom and flexibility throughout U.S. education
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CNBC
A federal judge Friday accused special counsel Robert Mueller's team of using criminal charges to squeeze former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort to get his help in possibly either prosecuting or impeaching President Donald Trump, multiple reports said.
A2IM Announces Five of the Artists Performing
At the 2018 Libera Awards on June 21st in NYC
(May 7, 2018 - New York City, NY): Each year, as a culmination of its Indie Week events, A2IM celebrates the art and achievements of those in the independent music community with the Libera Awards presented by SoundExchange. With a diverse lineup of nominees and comedian Kate Wolff hosting, the 2018 Libera Awards will be the biggest and most exciting yet. As award night grows ever closer, A2IM is excited to announce this year's extraordinary lineup of performers.
Fresh off of the release of her new album, Mental Illness, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Aimee Mann will grace the stage of the Libera Awards this year. With her release of eight studio albums including the much-beloved Magnolia soundtrack, as well as her collaborations with other artists ranging from Matthew Sweet to Styx, Mann has earned a place among the greatest songwriters of all time.
In one of the most anticipated and emotional performances of the evening, legendary funk and soul band The Dap-Kings will take the stage for a tribute to Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, featuring members of their bands, the Dap-Kings and the Extraordinaires. Their friend and fellow soul star Lee Fields will lead the band in his song "Wish You Were Here".
Looking forward to his Libera Awards performance, Lee Fields shares. "Sharon Jones was like a little sister to me. So, when I sing this song, I know she can hear me in heaven."
Sharon's longtime friend and background vocalist (as well as one half of Daptone band Saun & Starr), Saundra Williams, will sing as well. Sharon Jones recorded six albums on Daptone Records as Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and will be remembered for her fiery vocals and exhilarating onstage presence. Also a member of Daptone Records, Bradley was known as "the screaming eagle of soul," wowing audiences with his James Brown-like moves and powerful, poignant performances.
"A2IM is thrilled to announce five extraordinary artists, who will be among those performing at the 2018 A2IM Libera Awards. These performers, as well as all of the nominees, demonstrate the diversity and musical depth of the independent community. We are especially honored to be hosting a tribute to the late Sharon Jones and the late Charles Bradley, both prior Libera Award winners." Says Richard James Burgess, CEO of A2IM.
Featuring four male rappers - Li'l Rodney C!, MC Jazzy Jeff, K.K. Rockwell, and Keith Keith, Funky 4 + 1 was not only the first hip-hop group to feature a female MC, Sha Rock, but also the first out of the Bronx to get a record deal. In 1979, when all of the members were still under 17 years old, they signed with Enjoy Records and released their first single, "Rappin' & Rockin' the House." At the time, the 16-minute-long track was the longest hip-hop song ever to be released. In 1981, Funky 4 + 1 made history as the first hip-hop group to appear on a national television show when they performed on Saturday Night Live in 1981. In 2008, their single "That's the Joint" (released in 1980 after the group moved to Sugar Hill Records) was ranked by VH1 as one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time.
Says MC Jazzy Jeff about the upcoming award show: "We are truly honored to receive such an iconic award and to be recognized by A2IM. The Libera Awards shines a light on the true essence of all genres of music, and Funky 4+1 is thrilled to be representing hip hop."
Sam Outlaw will take the stage, bringing his distinctive flavor of "SoCal country" that merges the twang of classic honky-tonk tunes with soulful West Coast singer-songwriter storytelling. His first album, Angeleno, was released in 2017 to international acclaim. The follow-up album, Tenderheart, has further cemented his place in both the independent and country music worlds.
Grammy-nominated guitarist and singer Raul Midon will also perform. Labeled by the New York Times as "a one-man band who turns a guitar into an orchestra and his voice into a chorus," Midon never fails to wow his audience. With his syncopated, percussive guitar-playing and his signature mouth-horn improvisations, Midon brings people's hands together as he lays it all out onstage. Midon's latest album, Bad Ass and Blind, was released in 2017 on Artistry Records.
The A2IM Libera Awards, presented by SoundExchange, with a special celebration of Merlin's 10 Year Anniversary, will take place on June 21 at NYC's PlayStation Theater. The award ceremony will top off Indie Week, A2IM's four-day lineup of workshops and panels led by music industry leaders. Indie Week will be held from June 18 to June 21 at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, located on NYC's Lower East Side. Designed to provide education and networking opportunities, Indie Week helps further A2IM's mission of advocacy, education, and connection-building within the independent music community.
The A2IM Libera Awards are sponsored by SoundExchange in partnership with The Orchard, ADA, Spotify, INgrooves, DISCO, and Songtrust.
For more information on A2IM's 2018 Indie Week, please visit:
http://a2im.org/event/a2im-indie-week-2018/
To learn more about the A2IM Libera Awards or to buy tickets, please visit: https://a2im.org/event/a2im-libera-awards-2018/
About A2IM:
A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City that exists to support and strengthen the independent recorded music sector. Membership currently includes a broad coalition of more than 550 Independently-owned American music labels. A2IM represents these independently owned small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. In doing so, it supports a key segment of America's creative class that represents America's diverse musical cultural heritage. Billboard Magazine identified the Independent music label sector as 37.32 percent of the music industry's U.S. recorded music sales market in 2016 based on copyright ownership, making Independent labels collectively the largest music industry sector.
The organization's board of directors consists of the following: ATO Vice President Stephanie Alexa, President of Concord Music Group Glen Barros, Redeye Co-Owner Glenn Dicker, INgrooves EVP & General Manager Amy Dietz, Co-President of Mom+Pop Music Thaddeus Rudd, Big Machine COO Andrew Kautz, Beggars Group Founder/CEO Martin Mills, Hopeless Records Owner Louis Posen, Kill Rock Stars President Portia Sabin, Secretly Label Group Co-Owner Darius Van Arman and Razor & Tie President Vic Zaraya.
