Jake Jacobs is a middle school art teacher in New York. He is the national co-administrator of the BadAss Teachers Association, an organization of militant activist teachers.
He writes:
Joe Biden’s recent nomination of Miguel Cardona as a relatively lesser-known, less controversial selection for Secretary of Education was telling. It shows the incoming administration’s reticence to take a side in the ongoing battle over school choice and standardized testing, just like most members of Congress and the major U.S. media.
On the campaign trail, Biden drew cheers from teachers for his promise to end standardized testing, but he noticeably never added any such policy to his website. As was well known by teachers in those audiences, federally mandated tests provide no educational benefit but are the fuel in the engine driving charter school expansion.
President-Elect Biden did vow to cut federal funding to for-profit charter schools, however this affects only about 12% of charters (who could easily change their model while still enriching their for-profit management CONTINUE READING: Jake Jacobs: End the Tax Breaks for Charter Schools and the Uber-Rich | Diane Ravitch's blog
