Will The Next Democratic President Appoint Another Charter School Missionary as Secretary of Education?
Just to clear the record: I am not in favor of closing charter schools or demonizing those who work in or attend them. Some of my best students have gone to charter schools, worked in charter schools, and sent their children to charter schools. I can live with that. In a society filled with hardship and inequality, it is not my place to challenge where people work, where they live and where they send their children to school.
However, to the best of my knowledge, none of my students and former students are CHARTER SCHOOL MISSIONARIES, people who think that charter schools are the solution to economic and educational inequality and think public schools, in their entirety, should be shut down in favor of charters as they were in New Orleans.
Our last three Secretaries of Education, Arne Duncan, John King and Betsy Devos have been Charter School Missionaries. I just want to make sure that the next Democratic President, whether elected in 2020 or 2024, will not appoint a Charter School Missionary to that position
Right now, few, if any of the Democratic candidates for President have earned my confidence that they would make a clean break with the Obama and Trump Administration on Education Issues.