“Progressive” 2020 Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Who Support Charter Schools
More writers, commentators, and researchers are increasingly reminding the public that a large number of democrats at all levels of government have long supported and promoted privately-operated charter schools that annually siphon billions of public dollars from thousands of over-tested and vilified public schools.
The oft-repeated myth that the privatization and destruction of public education has always largely been “a Republican thing” or “a right-wing thing” is slowly dissolving. It was always a fairytale. Just like the widely-rejected No Child Left Behind Act, and its much-worse successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act, nonprofit and for-profit charter schools continue to have bipartisan support: both parties of the rich support these “free market” schools plagued by corruption, discriminatory enrollment practices, low transparency, high teacher turnover rates, intense controversy, and a high rate of failure and closure.
Some Democrats here and there have broken ranks and come out opposing, or at least criticizing, charter schools, but mostly to save face or to self-servingly incubate a specialized voting bloc for themselves in a discredited political system. The next few months will be revealing in terms of which democrats at different levels of government will represent the public will and have the courage to vocally oppose charter schools and unequivocally defend public schools instead.
Many are not holding their breath.
Pete Buttigieg is the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and one of almost two dozen 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Much of the mainstream media is touting him as a great progressive guy, a breath of fresh air, someone we might be able to get behind. But Buttigieg has unabashedly made it clear that he is not opposed to charter schools, repeating worn-out disinformation like charter schools are laboratories of innovation others can learn from.
Beto O’Rourke, another young Democratic presidential candidate (from Texas) who is also receiving many glowing reviews from the mainstream CONTINUE READING: “Progressive” 2020 Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Who Support Charter Schools | Dissident Voice
