CURMUDGUCATION: Unionizing Charters (PT. 3)

CURMUDGUCATION: Unionizing Charters (PT. 3):

Unionizing Charters (PT. 3)

So I've been working my way through the newly-launched conversation about how teacher unions and charter school fans could become BFFs. (Here are Part 1, Part 2, and a sort of Prelude). After plowing through all that, I'm going to try to articulate what I think we're looking at and how I feel about it.

The Need

This is all in reaction to the Ascent of Herr Trump and his Secretary of Education-in-Waiting Betsy DeVos. As many have noted, their arrival creates a bit of a problem for folks who have worked the progressive side of the street for the reformsters. On the one hand, much of the proposed policy, including especially the emphasis on charters, is right in line with the policies of the last sixteen years and fully in keeping with what we would have had under a Clinton Presidency.

On the other hand, having Clinton and her old CAP hands out in front of this would have made lots and lots of Democrats and progressives feel pretty okee-dokee about dismantling public education and selling off the pieces. Teacher unions would have had a comfy seat at the table, and faith in the Dems would have reassured many folks that what was happening with charters and public schools couldn't possibly be bad for children or education.

Democrats and progressives, however, are not nearly so comfortable when these policies are being championed by an unbalanced cheeto-skinned narcissist and a public-school hating billionaire heiress.So folks like Peter Cunningham have a doubly-difficult double task. Task 1 is to watch and see just how many CURMUDGUCATION: Unionizing Charters (PT. 3):