by Kevin Mahnken
This article was originally published at The 74.
Charter schools came about a generation ago, the brainchild of a technocratic movement to offer families more educational options and test-drive innovative educational practices. Since then, the American charter movement has relied on an ideologically diverse coalition of supporters — including both free-market conservatives and urban liberals — to foster its rapid growth.
After years of strain, that alliance has begun to split. As school choice is increasingly associated with the conservative policies of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, some Democrats have accused charters of a multitude of sins, from draining funds from school districts to funneling them toward corporate interests. Teachers unions, long critical of the nation’s creeping charter expansion, have also pushed their advantage. No surprise, then, that several leading candidates for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination have proposed new restrictions on charters.
As a 2019 poll from the pro-reform group Democrats for Education Reform shows, the ideological evolution reflects a racial split within the Democratic Party. While black and Hispanic Democrats look fairly favorably on public schools of choice, a whopping 62 percent of white party members view them critically. Opposition among whites has grown in recent years. (Read more of our coverage of this poll about Democratic views on charter schools.)
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