Lecture to Focus on Charter Schools

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Alan Bersin, formerly California’s secretary of education, will talk about charter schools Friday, Jan. 19, at the opening of a spring lecture series sponsored by the department of education reform at the University of Arkansas.

Charter schools operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. They receive the same amount of state guaranteed aid per pupil as a traditional public school, but they cannot generate property tax revenue as a traditional school district can. Arkansas has 16 charter schools, and the Arkansas Board of Education will consider eight new charter applications at its meeting Wednesday, Jan. 17.

Bersin, who was superintendent of public education for San Diego schools from 1998 until his appointment by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in July 2005, stepped down following the governor’s re-election in November. Bersin will give an address titled “Charter Schools, Competition and the Clock: The Race to Save Public Education.”

Jay P. Greene, endowed chair and head of the UA department of education reform, said the lecture series offers education officials, researchers and practitioners the latest information on ideas being put into use across the country and how they could be used in Arkansas.

“The department of education reform’s lecture series will bring to Arkansas some of the nation’s leading education researchers and policy-makers,” Greene said. “They will share their ideas with us so that together we can work to improve the quality of education in Arkansas and the nation.”

Bersin’s lecture will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. Friday in the Graduate Education Building auditorium. A light lunch is provided with RSVP to Sarah Hays, 575-7024 or skhays@uark.edu. David Ferrero, senior program officer for the education division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will speak from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 26 in Graduate Education 343 on the topic “From Conflict to Comity: How to Take Advantage of the Diversifying Landscape of Public Schooling to the Benefit of Educators, Students and Civil Society.”

Locations and times will be announced later for the subsequent lectures. The schedule:

• Jan. 19, Alan Bersin, former California secretary of education
• Jan. 26, David Ferrero, senior program officer for the education division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Feb. 9, Joyce Elliott, chair of the Joint Education Committee, Arkansas General Assembly
• Feb. 22, Blanche Lincoln, U.S. senator, Arkansas
• Feb. 23, Tom Stewart, consultant, Fight for the Children
• March 9, Greg Forster, director of research for the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation
• March 30, Elena Llaudet, research associate, Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University
• April 20, Susan Zelman, superintendent of public instruction for Ohio
• April 27, Stuart Buck, law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel

The purpose of the UA department of education reform, established in July 2005, is to improve K-12 education in Arkansas and across the nation. It focuses research and demonstration projects on five primary areas of reform: teacher quality, leadership, policy, accountability and transparency, and school choice. Its $20 million endowment supports six endowed chairs and 10 doctoral fellowships.