Jeff Bryant: Voters Reject the Rightwing Push for School Privatization
The big victories were the overwhelming defeat of voucher legislation in Arizona and the Tony Thurmond’s election over the charter lobby’s candidate Marshall Tuck in the Califotnia race for state school superintendent, despite Tuck’s more than 2-1 funding advantage.
And there were many more victories, especially in governors’ races.
In gubernatorial races across the Midwest, Democrats ran and won with strong oppositional messages against school privatization.
In Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer won a governor’s seat formerly occupied by Rick Snyder after campaigning to “end the [Betsy] DeVos agenda in Michigan,” close for-profit charter schools in the state, and propose additional oversights for charters.
In Minnesota, Democratic challenger for an open governor’s seat Tim Walz, a former public high school geography teacher and football coach, pledged to block any proposed voucher programs. He won decisively.
In Illinois, Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker defeated incumbent Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, while pledging to end the state’s education tax credit voucher program, which already diverts public tax dollars to pay for private school tuition for 5,600 students….
In what is perhaps the most startling of charter school turnarounds, Continue reading: Jeff Bryant: Voters Reject the Rightwing Push for School Privatization | Diane Ravitch's blog
