ABSTRACT
Access to a good school can transform a child’s life. The charter school process is often neither equitable nor transparent. Charters receive public money but are not regulated by the policies of traditional public schools. Teaching is and has always been personal, political, and professional. It is an altruistic profession, and it requires our best selves in action. Excellent teachers don’t complain without offering possible solutions. Strong, visionary principals need to remain in a school for at least five years. Mind-sets, skills sets, relationships, achievements, and students’ and teachers’ lives are often transformed by living with what’s possible. Learned helplessness and fear accompany these tests, one result of what happens when states overvalue testing and devalue education and educators.
