BACKGROUND
Education in the 21st century promises to be unlike anything we could have anticipated. The contributions of technology, both positive and negative, and the availability of instant worldwide communication through the growth of access to the Internet, combined with the social upheaval exemplified by the struggle between groups whose voices have previously been silenced and those that want to return to those presumably "quiet" days, present challenges to public education that seem insurmountable.
At the dawn of the 21st century, education has taken center stage on the national agenda of the United States. We are experiencing a raging debate that is focusing on the shortcomings of our education system, the value of education's contribution to our economic survival, and the expanding social role education is expected to play in development of our children.
The new realities of society in the 1990's have transformed schooling from an educational issue to a political one. The resulting public debate has bought confusion and frustration to public education at every level.
Most fields of endeavor, most professions and most companies have experienced major restructuring, major overhaul, streamlining and downsizing. Our education system is generally perceived as intransigent and encumbered by traditions that seem out of place and out of step with the technological explosion we are experiencing. Most of the innovative efforts in education seem to be manifest in programs independently developed outside the conventional school system.
The emergence of charter schools, the increased interest in alternative schools, the demand for controversial school voucher programs, the introduction of private company school management, the debate between outcome based education and basic education, are all manifestations of unrest in the public education sector.
In addition, the highly educated, formerly highly paid, displaced workers make up a new category appearing on the scene and asking the education system to assist with their reintegration into the mainstream of employment.
This situation calls for creative solutions and points toward major changes in the culture of education. The Langberg Foundation is uniquely poised to provide the leadership necessary to meet these challenges.
PROVEN SUCCESSES
The philosophy developed by Arnold Langberg and his network of educators over the past 35 years has helped to foster and nurture a public alternative school movement by producing successful model educational programs within the public education system which have been successfully meeting the challenges before the educational system. Much of the developmental work contributed by the alternative schools movement is currently manifest in the "Charter School" enabling legislation which has served as the foundation for a new education reform movement the success of which must be underscored.
The Langberg philosophy was always to work within the extant educational system. Public education was to be supported and developed. Public education is not a system to be destroyed, weakened or replaced, but a system to be reformed, redesigned and renewed.
Arnie Langberg and colleagues worked to make sure that this philosophy would permeate the Charter School legislation in Colorado, where the Langberg Foundation is based. Charter Schools were to be part of the existing school districts and they were to provide opportunities for districts to experiment with new ideas and, in a sense, serve as laboratories for the development of programs and ideas that could be inculcated into all the schools of the district.
