Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter Schools
Hillary supporters who, at least, are not explicitly hostile to public schools have coughed and groaned for a long time when confronted with evidence the Clintons' unyielding support for Common Core, TFA, standardized tests, continued school resegregation, and corporate reform "no excuses" schools for the poor. Hillary's full embrace of her husband's new paternalism and "broken windows" social theory applied to schools, along with her lucrative support for the education industry and charter proliferation, have been the impetus for Hillary lovers to harrumph and change the political subject on many occasion.
So it is, then, that many of these supporters have taken Hillary's latest remarks on charter schools as a chance to spin a story that Hillary is hostile to charters and entirely supportive of the publicly controlled schools that are dying out at the same rate that the charter blight spreads across America. Sorry, spinners.
If we look at what Hillary said, however, during her Roland Martin interview in South Carolina last week, it is easy to see a politician with a mastery of having-it-both-ways obfuscating rhetoric that underscores her unwillingness to stand up for any principle that is likely to alienate any potential donor to her campaign. Here is part of what she said when asked if she supports the expansion of charter schools and vouchers:
CLINTON: I have for many years now, about 30 years, supported the idea of charter schools, but not as a substitute for the public schools, but as a supplement for the public schools. And what I have worked on through my work with the Children’s Defense Fund and my work on education in Arkansas and through my time as first Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter Schools: