January 25th, 2010

Charter Leaders,
 
As of today our membership has grown to 28 schools. Thanks to all of the Alliance members!
 
Tomorrow we will trek to Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy and there Headmaster Joe Maimone will host some 20 charters for a two hour discussion about the future of our public schools of choice. I look forward to meeting those of you who may come. We are in the process of setting up perhaps two more regional roundtable events. Last week Dr. Tom Humble and his staff hosted our first and very productive, meeting at Raleigh Charter High School.
 
Last week, in North Carolina’s Race to the Top application, the state called North Carolina’s “innovative” district schools “charter-like schools without charters.” The report gave Lt. Governor Walter Dalton credit for the phrase. Thanks Lt. Governor, I think. As you know by now the application bailed on charters. We will have a second chance in the spring.
 
“The Tipping Point”, by Malcolm Gladwell, suggests ideas can go “viral” with today’s technology. Movies are powerful and perhaps a film about charter schools will be our “tipping point” in American K-12 education.
 
A new documentary film “Waiting for Superman,” which has high praise for charter schools, premieres this week at Sundance. The film is directed by Davis Guggenheim, and focuses on children from the Bronx and Harlem –calling them “little packages of promise, whose futures become dependent on the lotteries by which they are admitted (or not) into the charter schools that provide the only alternative to the corrupted institutions to which they are otherwise consigned.” Required viewing?
 
As we listen to your interests you will of course remember your teachers. Should the Alliance provide a vehicle for professional development? And perhaps liability insurance or other benefits that we might be able to procure at lower costs, via our collective purchasing power? Let me have your thoughts.
 
I am excited to tell you that we are looking at a permanent home for the Alliance in Raleigh. Although we are not a lobbying organization we do want to keep our finger on the pulse of public education and be able to get our voice heard in the capital as well as across the state.
 
In closing, please feel free to contact me personally on my cell at 704-236-1234 or at wegoodall@gmail.com.
 
Sincerely,
Eddie Goodall
President
Raleigh, North Carolina
704-236-1234