News

Defund teachers unions, not charter schools
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
April 9, 2022
Tampa Bay Times
 
…Last month, the Biden administration proposed prohibiting federal funding to charter schools unless a district’s traditional public schools are overpopulated. The proposed ruling would also withhold funds from charters that are insufficiently “racially and socio-economically diverse,” and it would allow teacher unions to dictate how they are operated….
 
By all accounts, [charter schools are] one of Washington’s greatest success stories. Research shows charter schools produce greater academic gains than traditional public schools while using less money to do so….
 
The only reason to crack down on charter schools is cronyism. The national teacher unions hate charters because they give parents the option to flee failing schools or look for a better fit for their kids. These shine a light on where traditional public schools fall short, an embarrassment to unions’ failures.
 
We know from the past two years that national unions’ interests don’t always align with what is best for parents and their kids. But the unions are experts at getting “their people” into political office, and they donate tens of millions (much of it from teachers’ union dues) to political action committees. Their outsized influence allows them to buy widespread support for their anti-charter agenda.
 
Never mind that many Democratic voters are in favor of school choice. And never mind that students will be worse off without charter schools. What matters to Democratic politicians like Joe Biden is keeping their special interest donors happy.
 
America’s families deserve better than special interest politics and destructive “one size-fits-all” mandates from the federal government…. If President Biden really wants to help our country’s children, he should defund radical teacher unions, not charter schools.
 
Read the rest here.