Democrats abandon charter schools as ‘reform’ agenda falls from favor
Democrats have long backed charter schools as a politically safe way to give kids at low-performing schools more options. Many supported merit pay for the best teachers and holding schools accountable for test scores.
The presidential contest is proof that’s no longer the case.
If the candidates say anything about charter schools, it’s negative. Education initiatives boosted by the Bush and Obama administrations are nowhere to be found in candidate platforms.
Instead, the Democratic candidates are pitching billions of dollars in new federal spending for schools and higher pay for teachers, with few of the strings attached that marked the Obama-era approach to education.
It adds up to a sea change in Democratic thinking on education, back to a more traditional Democratic approach emphasizing funding for education and support for teachers and local schools. Mostly gone is the assumption that teachers and schools are not doing enough to serve low-performing children and that government must tighten requirements and impose consequences if results do not improve.
As a senator, Joe Biden said private school vouchers might help improve public schools. As vice president, he was atop an administration that made support for charter schools a requirement to access federal grant funding. But when asked about charters — privately run, publicly funded schools — during a recent forum with the American Federation of Teachers, Biden sounded a negative note.
“The bottom line is it siphons off money for our public schools, which are already in enough trouble,” he said.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has been a prominent backer of charter schools and helped bring them to Newark when he was mayor. But last month in Iowa, he, too, emphasized their downsides.
“I’m a guy who believes in public education and, in fact, I look at some of the charter laws that are written around this country in states like this, and I find them really offensive,” he said, according to video posted by the Hill. “They’re not about local communities finding solutions that work. They’re about raiding public CONTINUE READING: Democrats abandon charter schools as ‘reform’ agenda falls from favor - The Washington Post
