What Would Religious Charter Schools Mean for Public Education? (Opinion) Education Week
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The charter school movement was once the golden child of the U.S. education reform world, celebrated and bolstered by billionaire philanthropists and by politicians of both major parties. But charter schools are in the midst of radical changes and are confronting an increasingly unstable alliance supporting them.
Republicans arguably dealt the first major blow. While President Donald Trump embraced the charter school growth policies of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ great passion was instead for private school vouchers. Other Republicans have shown the same preference, with charters suffering from a bit of GOP neglect.
But the key rupture came in 2020-21, when the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform and President Joe Biden himself angered some charter school advocates by calling for increased accountability, transparency, and access.
