Why Don't Progressives Support Charter Schools?
Charter schools, as an alternative to traditional public schools, deliver results for the students they serve. A large portion of successful students in charters schools are African-American and Latino, who struggle in public schools - four out of every five of these students are failing to meet proficiency standards.
So why do progressives like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stand against charter schools?
A New York Post columnist states that progressives are often champions of "alternative" systems. But when it comes to charter schools, these same politicians will only support traditional public schools:
A progressive might see in charters the beginnings of a new structure for public education that abandons the highly centralized, top-down, one-size-fits-all system of the traditional schools in favor of a concept that offers citizens more options for their children and more accountability for those who provide them. Instead, we have a mayor who's going to keep failing schools going so long as they are traditionals and curtail the expansion of the successful if they are alternatives.
For a man who likes to talk about New York's "progressive future," Bill de Blasio sure does seem awfully wed to the past.
