God's Timing

It's been interesting, this new role of "Rallying for Public Charter Schools Mom" I have inadvertently become.

Interesting turn of events. Watch this timeline:

*Tuesday, after three reschedules, we meet with Michael Dembrow. When I return, I report the findings to my yahoo parents group and we have a discussion about how to better answer the opposition. It's very fruitful.

*Wednesday, my neighbor emails me (she is a Dembrow supporter AND a charter school supporter) a constituent email she got from Dembrow of some upcoming public meetings Dembrow is holding. One was a coffee house meeting yesterday (Saturday morning) the other is an official town hall meeting coming up later, both of which I didn't attend. Probably a good thing. Mr. Dembrow needs to hear from others besides me. I post these meeting dates to the parent's group seeing if anyone wants to attend.

A team of three did, and here is their report. I sense he is moving a bit on his position. I also sense that others just need to be educated on this topic. Here is Mark's report:



My wife, Julie, and Paula from this forum, and I were at the meeting with Michael Dembrow this morning. He was pretty generous sharing his thoughts with us.

I didn't feel comfortable exploring the details of his views in an open meeting like that. I'm not good at this kind of thing anyway. But I asked him a few general questions, and got some pretty direct answers. He said that he had some problems with the "model" of ORCA, although he was not opposed to public charter schools. He recommended the "North Bend model" as an virtual school alternative - but we didn't pursue this further than to point out that it was not a K-12 model.

We listened while he explained the arguments about "disruption" by "dropouts". Paula addressed this with her story, I think with good effect. Julie said that "a dropout from this program is not the same as an education dropout."

He drew attention to what he characterized as an unfair or unbalanced "profit" enjoyed by the tiny school district of Scio, implying that this was to the detriment of other districts. We made a few scattered comments to the effect that, this is what is available now to fit our choices and it would be disruptive to thousands of families to have it end. I said that this program has drawn homeschoolers into the public schools (many homeschoolers, I can tell you, count it as a defeat). I would think that a common school advocate would count this as a victory .

We were rewarded for our patience by hearing him say "it's my inclination to oppose any legislation that would shut down ORCA 'prematurely' ."

I asked him, "does that mean that you would favor a waiver of the 50% rule if applying that rule to ORCA means that the program would end before something is developed to take its place, something that seems more 'fair' and 'sensible' to you?"

He said, "That would be my inclination" (to support the waiver).

At the end of the meeting he invited us to the April 1 meeting, and mentioned that video of the hearing will be offered "live, on-line". He recommended that we would write short position statements if you aren't able to attend, addressed to the chairman of the committee - or the committee register - I'm sorry I don't know which he said, and I don't know how to do that anyway. Pointers sought.

Anyway, such position statements should address the concept of online charter schools and other larger issues, in preference to the technical details of the bills themselves ( which he implied would probably be gutted and stuffed later ). These communications would be read directly into the record, just as scheduled remarks are entered into the record.

He also invited those who watch the hearing to email him afterward with their thoughts. I would recommend being brief and pointed.

As I say, I'm not good at this sort of thing. I don't like politics and resent the need for political activism. I'm a "mind my own business" kind of guy. But I hope that this is helpful to all of you.

Mark


Here is Paula's response of the same meeting:



Mark,

This is an excellent summary of the day.

I couldn't tell that this forum was uncomfortable to you. You handled yourself quite well and Julie's comments were fantastic, perfect timing, hitting the points out of the ball park! I felt that I was the nervous wreck. I just hoped that I didn't come off too blunt or unintelligent.

It's my observation that the reaction of those around the table had more of an impact on him. I smiled when the woman across from him made the statement that school choice in any venue should be allowed. She was the one that said money shouldn't be an issue if there is a successful program: Kids are what count. It's a small price to pay for our future. When everyone agreed, I guess he lost the argument. I'm thinking that that town hall meeting at Southest is one we should all go to.

I'm glad that we had the opportunity to address the "distraction" and "drop out" issue. I really appreciated the back up from Julie with the clarification of a drop out. I'm so appreciative of the advice and rebuttals we get from everyone in our group. Without the exchange of information, I know that I wouldn't be as effective.

You are all such wonderful ORCA Advocates!

Keeping with the pioneering spirit...... ......

Paula