Public Education: Our Vital Interest

by Anna Spangler Nelson

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Picture by Chris Cureton

December 1, 2011

When I was a student at West Charlotte High School in the late 1970s, West Charlotte was a peer to Myers Park High School in every aspect: academically, athletically and artistically.  The schools were two of the top academic high schools in Charlotte.   West Charlotte High School was newly integrated through court-ordered busing, drawing students from predominantly black and predominantly white neighborhoods.   We had enormous school pride at West Charlotte.   I attended because my parents believed it was the right academic decision for me to do so.

Today my daughter attends Myers Park High School.  It is our locally-zoned school.  She attends Myers Park because my husband and I believe it is the right academic decision for her to do so.  However, much has changed between the time I went to high school and today.   The graduation rate for Myers Park is 85%.  The graduation rate for West Charlotte has plummeted to 54%.   The two schools are only a few miles apart.   It seems what matters most is what zip code you were born into or what neighborhood you can afford to live in.

Overall, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools(CMS) is a thriving educational entity with much to celebrate as it relates to student achievement.  CMS was recently awarded the 2011 Broad Prize for narrowing the achievement gap between schools and for its focus on effective teaching and school leadership.  And yet, disparities are profound.  Not only do these disparities limit the lives of students, they potentially threaten community stability and our long-term capacity to solve problems and remain competitive.  It is in our vital interest that we have a healthy and effective public education system, whether or not our own children attend public school.

 A Family Value

The value and importance of public education is in my DNA.  My grandparents were farmers in Cleveland County before moving to Charlotte.  My father (C.D. ‘Dick’ Spangler, Jr.) grew up in the city, attending elementary and middle-school in the 1930’s and 40’s.  He worked on construction crews as a teenager, helping build West Charlotte High School.   He was the first in his family to go to college, attending UNC Chapel Hill.

In the early 1970’s, Charlotte schools were in a potentially chaotic state because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education that held that busing was an appropriate remedy for the problem of racial imbalance among schools.   There was a great deal of tension in the city about court-ordered busing.  My father ran for school board saying that we should  be concerned about the schools at the end of the bus ride, rather than the bus ride itself.   Charlotte soon rallied around schools having the same resources for all students, and Charlotte accepted integration better than any other community in the country.             
 
My father said that working relationships on the school board and with city officials were as good as he could imagine them being, and people worked together for what was clearly the public good.  They were working not only for schoolchildren of all races, but for the business community and the city at large.  Everybody had something to gain by having an effective school system.
 
My father went to chair the North Carolina State Board of Education where he worked with school system superintendents from all 100 counties, and worked to increase teacher pay and equity in schools.   He then became president of the University of North Carolina, serving for eleven years in what he called the best job in the state.   He did it all as a volunteer, never accepting any payment or donating any monies he received.

His love for education became my love for education.  If you can pick one gift to give a child, it would be an excellent education.  It can’t be taken away and it can’t be used up.  It opens more doors for possibilities than any other possible gift.  Our family would not enjoy all that we have but for the public school education we received.      

The CMS Investment Study Group

For many reasons, over the last generation public education in Charlotte has been under stress and the achievement gap has widened.  For several years, our family, through the C.D. Spangler Foundation, has been engaged in extra-efforts to figure out how to make a holistic impact on education.  About three years ago we coordinated a set of grants for West Charlotte where we invested several million dollars in helping children from birth to college.  Our grants caught a few people’s attention.    One of the organizations that approached us to learn more about what we were doing was the Leon Levine Foundation.  They asked about our ideas and how might we work together.

The Leon Levine Foundation asked: what if several major foundations in the city all put in significant funding around a big idea?  The Leon Levine Foundation and the C.D. Spangler Foundation then approached other funders, and they were quick to join in.  Larger funders include the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the Duke Energy Foundation, the Wells Fargo Foundation, the Foundation For The Carolinas, and the Belk Foundation.

Through the auspices of the Foundation For The Carolinas, we formed a committee known as the “CMS Investment Study Group,” which I co-chaired with Richard ‘Stick’ Williams of the Duke Energy Foundation.   The committee was made up of 13 members representing the different foundations and community leaders passionate about education.  Working closely with CMS and with national experts, we looked at models from around the country of private investment in public education, and how we might assist CMS in achieving goals tied to student performance.   

One area we explored is policy impediments that are not child-focused.  North Carolina limits the school year to 185 days.  One reason why is because the state tourism industry doesn’t want year-long schools interfering with family vacations.  Fifty-four percent of CMS students are struggling with poverty, on reduced or free lunch, and 10% are homeless.  They’re not spending their summers at the beach. 

Project L.I.F.T.

This year, the CMS Investment Study Group announced the launch of Project L.I.F.T. (Leadership and Investment for Transformation).   Project L.I.F.T. is a public-private partnership in support of 8 public schools that are all in the West Charlotte High School corridor.  The idea is to invest in the lowest performing district, take bold initiatives, and scale what works across the system.

The West Charlotte district is a 100% feeder corridor.   All the elementary, middle, and K-8 students feed into West Charlotte High School.   It is somewhat of a closed population of approximately 7500 students that that we can track from pre-K to 12th grade.  Having said that, the population is highly transient.   

Project L.I.F.T. is seeking to raise $55 million.  We have raised $46 million so far, and the final push is never easy.  Many of the dollars now being raised are from grassroots organizations, neighborhood residents and citizens throughout Charlotte making individual donations.   The dollars raised so far are conditional, and are not considered final until the $55 million is reached.  We want to make a real difference, and not settle for half-measures. 

The objective is to invest $55 million over 5 years, or $11 million a year, or an additional $1500 per student per year into the corridor.  CMS currently spends approximately $10,000 per student per year in the West Charlotte corridor, so the additional $1500 per student per year is only a 15% increase.

Project L.I.F.T. has hired a terrific and dedicated executive director, Denise Watts, who was the North Carolina Middle Level Principal of the Year in 2008-2009.  She reports to CMS and to a board of Project L.I.F.T. investors who provide accountability. 

Project L.I.F.T. is spending this year planning and in active community dialogue.  We have yet to finalize a detailed implementation budget, but the dollars will be spent generally in four areas:

• Recruiting, training and retaining the best teachers and administrative talent.  This includes creating better environments of like-minded colleagues.
• More time on task for students, including enhancing after-school and out-of-school enrichment.
• Enhanced technology in the classroom.
• Engaging community and parental support.  This is the most complicated piece given the complexity of stresses on families struggling with poverty, under-education and under-employment.  

Project L.I.F.T. is already working with several community service providers to help them succeed.  We have invested close to $1 million in Communities In Schools to increase its presence nearly three-fold, and we are partnering with other education-focused organizations who could make a greater impact if they had additional resources.   

Project L.I.F.T will roll out programming in West Charlotte beginning in the 2012-13 school year.   We’re going to experiment.  Not everything will work.   We have a particularly complex challenge because we are not launching a separate, independent enterprise – like a charter-school zone that sets its own rules – but rather partnering with an existing public school district.  What we’re doing is harder, but we can leverage success more efficiently across the system.   This is what makes this initiative so distinctive, and quite frankly, what helps give it national attention:  a private venture is partnering with a billion dollar public enterprise to help change it from within.

Charlotte Can Lead Again  

Charlotte was once at the forefront of effective public education.   This is an opportunity to lead again.  The challenge often seems overwhelming.  It makes sense to ask:  why does it matter?  How might I matter?  The system seems so big.  CMS has 19,000 employees and 135,000 students.  It’s easier to turn away.  However, no matter where our children go to school, or if we have children in school, the single greatest determinant of quality of life is education.  Delivering effective education for all is a responsibility we share for the common good.