With the country surging to the political left on Election Day, an Indianapolis native hopes that Barack Obama will take the education system in what he considers to be the right direction.
He doesn’t think of the issue as conservative or liberal, but Kevin Chavous wants more competition in public education. A lawyer based in Washington, D.C., he likes to see competition come from all directions, private, charter and home schools.
The former Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory High School basketball star is a key leader in the internal debate among Democrats over which way the party should go on educational choice.
One option, generally offered by politically influential teachers unions, is traditional — life tenure for most public school teachers; bigger public school budgets; and teacher pay based on seniority.
The more controversial option comes from Chavous and other members of Democrats for Education Reform: teacher pay linked to student performance; and a level playing field for competition between public schools and private alternatives.
President-elect Barack Obama won his historic race with strong support from teachers unions, but he has made rhetorical gestures to the reformers. Obama also is sending his two daughters to the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington.
Chavous helped bring charter schools to Washington D.C., as a three-term member of the city council and an adviser to Michelle Rhee, the city’s schools chief. Rhee has become a national school reform leader, praised by Obama and recently featured on the cover of Time magazine.
Chavous hopes the new president will choose the reform side, though most of the battles occur at the state and local levels. In Louisiana, Chavous helped Gov. Bobby Jindal in the state’s recent voucher initiative, offering 1,500 low- and middle-income families an option to send children to private schools in New Orleans.
At the federal level, Obama can help in a big way, according to Chavous, because he can take advantage of his party’s alliance with the teachers unions.
„Obama is the one who can make the change,“ Chavous said. „The change has to be led by the Democratic Party. We need someone who is willing to stand up to the unions from within the party.“
Chavous may sound more Republican than Democrat on education. „I came to this issue as an urban Democrat — will it help a child learn?“ He thinks real reform requires a coalition from both political parties.
He attributes his zeal on the issue to his opportunities in Indianapolis, where he attended parochial schools in his Butler University neighborhood. He was a basketball star at Brebeuf, where the priests demanded academic excellence. As an African-American, he can recall the racial taunts at some high school games. He balances those memories with the doors that others opened to him in education. After attending Wabash College, he left Indiana for law school at Howard University and stayed in Washington.
He’d like to see low-income families in urban areas have the options he benefited from in Indianapolis. He also hopes a new president will advance the private options that the first family’s daughters will enjoy.