Sen. Elizabeth Warren has built a political reputation as a leader willing to stand up to powerful interests. But in her education plan released on Monday, the senator’s courage failed her. While the plan includes important proposals to increase funding for Title I and students with disabilities, it would devastate the one reform that has proven most effective at helping students from working-class families get a better public education: charter schools.
The Warren plan on charter schools is right out of the teachers’ union playbook. In addition to suffocating existing charter schools with red tape and threats of investigation, she promises to eliminate the federal Charter Schools Program, which is a vital source of seed funding for new schools, helping nearly 60% of charter schools open between 2006-2007 and 2013-2014 (the latest data available). The Charter Schools Program has been especially important to leaders of independent, single-site charter schools — community educators who saw a need for better schools and took the bold step to open one.
In 2015, Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts Executive Director Diane LaBelle explained that her school “would not have been able to open without CSP funding. We received almost $300,000, which allowed us to purchase the textbooks, the furniture, and the equipment that we needed to get the school operational.” The Charter Schools Program grant also persuaded the philanthropic community to get involved. According to Ms. LaBelle, donors said, “If the CSP believes you can do it, then we believe you can do it, too.”
Most rank-and-file Democrats have enthusiastically supported charter schools since their inception more than 25 years ago. Democratic leaders have, too, such as Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama for starters, along with countless Democratic governors and mayors. Even Warren supported charter schools in her home state of Massachusetts, which boasts some of the best charter schools in the nation.
However, Warren began to change her tune in 2016, opposing a referendum that would have lifted caps on charter schools. As her presidential ambitions have swelled, Warren’s support for charter schools has diminished. No doubt she realizes that rejecting charter schools is the price Democrats have to pay to secure teachers’ union endorsements.
But while the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers may be two of the largest and most powerful special interest groups, they’re out of step with mainstream Democrats. According to a recent poll by the Benenson Strategy Group, 61% of Democratic primary voters favor continuing President Obama’s education policies designed to “promote innovation and choice in public schools and raise standards for every student.” In EducationNext’s annual poll of education views, a majority of black Democrats and a plurality of Hispanic Democrats favored charter schools.
It’s not hard to see why. According to a study of urban charter schools by Stanford University’s CREDO, “Learning gains for charter school students are larger by significant amounts for Black, Hispanic, low-income, and special education students in both math and reading.” Students in urban charter schools are gaining an average of 40 additional days of learning in math and 28 additional days of learning in reading per year as compared to their district counterparts.
Charter schools are shrinking the achievement gap by continually seeking new ways to meet the needs of their students and they are doing so while receiving less money than district-run public schools.
Warren has had a reputation in this campaign for releasing policy proposals that, whether or not you agree with their conclusions, are well-researched. Yet when it came to crafting her education plan, she clearly ignored the evidence showing that charter schools are boosting equity and excellence, and instead relied on tired special interest talking points that prioritize preserving the educational status quo over giving students and families the power to break free from failing schools.
The sad result is that Warren has proposed a plan that would rob parents of the power to choose a school that best meets their children’s needs and put an end to one of the most effective and results-driven federal education programs. The Charter Schools Program isn’t a boon to wealthy families who will always be able to choose a good school for their children. The Charter Schools Program is a lifeline for the overlooked families Warren claims to represent. It is distressing to see the candidate who purports to fight for disenfranchised families threaten one of the few remedies that is bringing real economic and life opportunities to students and families.
Hopefully, Warren’s plan is just a cynical ploy to secure the endorsement of teachers’ unions. Hopefully, if she advances to the Democratic nomination, she’ll start listening to the families of 3.2 million students currently attending charter schools and the 5 million more who want the opportunity to do so. But it’s still unfortunate that a self-styled warrior for the middle class has so blatantly chosen to side with big-spending special interests rather than with students.
Nina Rees (@Ninacharters) is president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. She was former deputy assistant for domestic policy to Vice President Dick Cheney.
