CA Charter Schools Expanding Outreach

This from a press release sent to me:

California’s charter public schools today launched the "My School!" public awareness campaign to mobilize parents statewide to find, support and expand access to charter schools. The campaign aims to double the number of parents statewide who can choose charter schools for their children. The California Charter Schools Association kicked off the campaign with the launch of www.myschool.org, an interactive Web site that includes a map of California to help parents find a charter school near them.

The "My School!" campaign, designed to reach more than 300,000 new parents, will help inform parents about their right to choose the best public school for their child. The campaign will also assist parents, teachers and local community groups in starting new high-quality charter schools and will provide additional support to strengthen existing charter schools.

In a survey of California voters commissioned last year by the Association, 78 percent of the voting public said that giving parents the ability to choose the best public school for their child would help improve the overall public school system.

Having just quickly perused the website, it seems full of pretty good information, including information on how to start a charter school.

However, aside from a Call to Action center, there is little quick information on how to influence school boards, policymakers and chartering authorities. This is a specific problem of many grassroots efforts.

Changing policymakers' minds is not an easy task, particularly when those policymakers are wedded to a particular point of view. Having information on how, when and where policymakers can be influenced is an important part of any grassroots campaign. Such efforts must be clearly outlined and understood.

But aside from that little annoying, but all too common, feature, any effort that increases knowledge about charter schools is always a good thing.