{"id":1654203,"date":"2022-09-23T03:19:30","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T07:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1654203"},"modified":"2022-09-23T03:21:11","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T07:21:11","slug":"democrats-war-on-charter-schools-is-sending-families-into-the-arms-of-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-war-on-charter-schools-is-sending-families-into-the-arms-of-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats\u2019 War On Charter Schools Is Sending Families Into The Arms Of Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-war-on-charter-schools-is-sending-families-into-the-arms-of-republicans%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1654203&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Democrats\u2019 war on education opportunity is hurting them in public opinion, and it will hurt them in November.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a war brewing in education \u2014 and this time, it\u2019s not just against traditional public school parents.\u00a0That fight hasn\u2019t gone anywhere. Parents still must advocate for a say in what their kids are taught within the confines of district schools across the nation, but leftists have staked out a new enemy in recent months: charter schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Democrats declaring war on charters is particularly insidious considering the majority demographics these schools serve are low-income and minority students. These students often flee to charter schools because their normal district schools \u2014 the schools assigned based on zip code alone \u2014 are unsafe, failing, or both.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nationwide,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/data.publiccharters.org\/digest\/charter-school-data-digest\/who-attends-charter-schools\/\">nearly 70 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the 3.5 million students served by charters are minority students, while\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publiccharters.org\/latest-news\/2022\/04\/18\/national-alliance-calls-out-us-dept-education-harmful-unnecessary-rules\">two-thirds<\/a>\u00a0are low-income. In places like Philadelphia,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philasd.org\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2019\/03\/Demographic-Characteristics-of-Students-2018-19-Data-Brief-March-2019.pdf\">more than 60 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the enrollment in charter schools are black children, as opposed to less than 50 percent in the district\u2019s traditional schools. More than 150 of the commonwealth\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.education.pa.gov\/K-12\/Opportunity%20Scholarship%20Tax%20Credit%20Program\/Pages\/default.aspx\">bottom 15 percent of underperforming public schools<\/a>\u00a0are in Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Parents have made a clear choice to provide a better, safer future for their children, but too often, Democrats do not respect their decisions. And now, the opportunity to even make that decision is being threatened.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Consider Philadelphia, where the city\u2019s school board hasn\u2019t approved a new charter school since it took over charter authorizations. 85 percent of the charters closed by the Philadelphia School District since 2010 were\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/education\/philadelphia-charters-school-board-black-led-20220623.html\">led by people of color<\/a>, including two schools that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/education\/philadelphia-charters-school-board-black-led-20220623.html\">the district voted to close in June<\/a>. And while accountability and consequences need to be in place for our kids\u2019 education, the same standards aren\u2019t applied to traditional district schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In Pennsylvania,\u00a078 percent of eighth-grade students are not proficient in math and 47 percent are not proficient in language arts.\u00a0Yet no one is demanding the closure of these schools; instead, government union executives are demanding more tax dollars to \u201cfix\u201d the problem.\u00a0But more money won\u2019t fix a systemic problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t isolated to Pennsylvania. Instead, it\u2019s a nationwide coordinated attack by progressives \u2014 which includes the Democrat-funded teachers unions \u2014 to further limit competition in education at the expense of student outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publiccharters.org\/our-work\/publications\/voting-their-feet-state-level-analysis-public-charter-school-and-district\">enrollment in charter schools<\/a>\u00a0increasing by nearly a quarter-million students in 2020-21, the Biden administration continues to fight the will of parents at every turn, most recently by slapping regulations on how charters qualify for federal grants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The new rules \u2014 which require applicants to prove a need and community support for the school, among other nonsensical oversteps \u2014 prove Democrats are more concerned with meeting the demands of government union executives than those of parents.\u00a0It\u2019s no wonder parents are shifting support to Republicans when it comes to education.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s according to a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dfer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Baseline-Nationwide-BG-Education-Summer-2022-.pdf\">poll<\/a>\u00a0released by Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), which specifically looked at likely voters in congressional battleground districts. Another\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/22086577-education-poll\">poll<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by the American Federation of Teachers \u2014 the second largest teachers\u2019 union in the nation \u2014 found similar results: Voters have more confidence in Republicans to deal with education issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And they should. Republicans are putting parents back in the driver\u2019s seat of their kids\u2019 education, while Democrats kowtow to the government bureaucrats running taxpayer-funded education into the ground.\u00a0Republicans have historically been stronger supporters of educational freedom,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Does-School-Choice-Need-Bipartisan-Support.pdf?x91208\">casting 2,844 \u201cyes\u201d votes<\/a>\u00a0for the final passage of private school choice legislation (compared to 381 from Democrats).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin campaigned on increased school choice, and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Fox_October-24-27_Virginia_Topline_October-28-Release.pdf\">56 percent<\/a>\u00a0of parents who supported him \u2014 in a state that President Biden had won by 10 points just a year before \u2014 sent a clear message: We will vote for Republicans when they give us more control of our kids\u2019 education.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a similar story in Arizona, where Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed the single largest expansion of school choice in the nation.\u00a0Arizona\u2019s\u00a0\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.edchoice.org\/school-choice\/programs\/arizona-empowerment-scholarship-accounts\/\">Empowerment Scholarship Account<\/a>\u201d (ESA) program gives families direct access to around $7,000 in state education funding to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, curriculum, and other approved expenses. Unlike previous programs that restricted scholarship eligibility to students from low-income families or with special needs, Arizona\u2019s program now offers universal eligibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fighting against the will of parents \u2014 especially when it comes to the future of their kids \u2014 is a losing message. Yet Democrats seem hell-bent on clinging to it as they fight the expansion of charter schools and other school measures at every turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not difficult to see why when you examine the relationship between government unions and the Democratic Party. The American Federation of Teachers, for example, spent almost\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/national\/teachers-union-gave-nearly-20-million-to-dems-before-influencing-cdc-school-reopening-guidance\/article_9e61a2ec-aea2-11eb-9bb4-dfc310e83da6.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$20 million for the 2020 election<\/a>, with nearly all its political contributions going to Democrats and left-wing groups. For the current election cycle, government unions have already spent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonwealthfoundation.org\/research\/political-spending-unions-pennsylvania\/\">$13.6 million on politics<\/a>, with 85 percent of their political action committee donations going to Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The result? Our kids are failing. Parents have limited options, and in some cases, no options at all. Increasingly, they distrust the political party that continues to take their options away.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Jennifer Stefano is chief innovation officer and vice president at the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania\u2019s free market think tank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats\u2019 war on education opportunity is hurting them in public opinion, and it will hurt them in November.\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s a war brewing in education \u2014 and this time, it\u2019s not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1381,"featured_media":1654205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1654203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1654203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1654205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1654203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1654203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1654203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}