Joe and Jill Biden appeared at a National Education Association gathering on the 4th of July. Jill introduced her husband emphatically referring to him as the “education President.” (Question, are we to assume this is another moniker to go along with Biden’s self-designated title, “Bidenomics president?”) Moving on, I take “education president” as a short-hand way of implying that he has fostered plans and programs to get education out of its present pathetic performance mess. Before we make that leap of faith, perhaps we should review the bidding on Biden’s education track record.
EDUCATION IN AMERICA TODAY:
One, public education is facing a crisis of epic proportions by flooding society with functionally illiterate high school graduates.
Two, proficiency levels in all subjects took a nose-dive during the pandemic.
Three, proficiency levels have continued to decline in the post-pandemic school year.
Four, poor education and high drop-out numbers are particularly harmful to minorities and low-income families.
Five, Biden will not talk about the above four facts.
BACKGROUND:
The best way to nail down a definition of the education problem is to look at data from the reputable National Assessment of Education Progress:
Math:
4th grade, 67% are below Proficiency level.
8th grade, 75% are below Proficiency level.
12th grade, 76% are below Proficiency level.
Reading:
4th grade, 68% are below Proficient level.
8th grade, 71% are below Proficient level.
12th grade, 63% are below Proficiency level.
This data is a combination of results from both charter schools and traditional public schools (TPS). The Wall Street Journal recently reported that independently run schools, commonly referred to as charter schools, are, “blowing away their traditional public-school competition in student performance.”
Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcome, (CREDO) has been tracking charter school performance since 2009 covering over two million charter students in 29 states.
In 2009, CREDO’s study concluded that charters did not provide better performance outcomes than TPS. However, the latest review found that charters “advanced more than their TPS peers by a large margin in math and reading.”
One reason this charter vs TPS discussion is so important is that school choice has become a national political issue, generally with the Republican Party advocating for the advancement of school choice and the Democrat Party limiting school choice in general and charter schools in particular.
CHARTER SCHOOL DEFINED:
Public charter schools served 3.7 million students in 7,800 schools during the 2020-2021 school year which is 7.5% of all public-school students. And charters have waiting lists for millions more. It is important to note that 69% of charter students are minority and two-thirds are from low-income households.
Facts shared by nearly all the states: Charter schools are authorized by the State Boards of Education. Charter schools are tuition-free schools of choice that are operated mostly by independent non-profit boards of directors.
The two major teachers’ unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) consistently spread false information against charter schools.
- Lie # 1: “Charter schools are unaccountable, private schools that take money away from district schools.” Truth: Charter schools are 100% accountable to state authorities. Charter school students are typically funded at $0.73/dollar compared to TPS students.
- Lie # 2: “Charter schools don’t serve a diverse population of students; they get to hand pick their students to populate their schools.” The truth is, if a child is eligible to attend a public government school, parents may apply to any charter school. If a charter school receives more applications than its capacity, a lottery is conducted. Discrimination based on race, national origin, or religion is prohibited. While only 4% of traditional public schools have student bodies that are 99% minority, 17% of charter schools are 99% minority.
- Lie # 3: “Charter schools are not academically superior to government-run public schools.” Truth: In New York City, for example, in a number of minority communities, traditional public school and charter school classes are co-located in a common building. In one co-mingled building, in 28 different classes, less than 10% of the government-run public school students tested to a proficient level while 81-100% of charter students were proficient.
Why do charter school students perform better? Government-run public schools are top-down highly regulated vs charters with their own organization, planning and programs allowing them the freedom to
use innovative school models and customized approaches to curriculum, staffing, budgeting and teaching. The bottom line is that attributes like organization, innovation and freedom make a difference in any organization. Charters feel less constrained and every day are seeking to be all they can be for students and parents.
This is a summary of what the teachers’ union leaders are telling we-the-people about charter schools: Charter schools are privately-operated, deregulated, segregated, poorly-supervised, de-unionized scandal-ridden contract schools that drain much-needed funds from demonized public schools. Those descriptions are all lies.
To illustrate how out-of-control the teachers unions can get, when California was considering sending teachers back into the classroom in 2021, the Los Angeles Teachers’ Union made the following demands: “defund the police, a moratorium on new charter schools, new wealth taxes on California millionaires and billionaires and Medicare-for-all at the federal level.” Three questions come to mind: 1) How did they get so far out of their lane? 2) Why are they a decision-maker on when teachers return to the classroom? 3) How did they get that much power and influence?
FAILING SCHOOLS:
Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students. Those “dropout factories” account for over 50% of the students who leave school every year. One in six students attend a dropout factory. One in three minority students (32%) attend a dropout factory compared to 8% of white students.
The key question is, what happens to these failing government-run public schools? Usually nothing.
By contrast, if charter students do not measure up to standards, the school is subject to being shut down by state law. Is accountability important in education? Yes, it is the ultimate arbiter.
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND EDUCATION:
February 2020, Biden campaigning in South Carolina, “I am not a charter school fan.” No explanation as to why he not a fan.
Biden during the 2020 campaign: “There are some charter schools that work.” Wow, what a resounding endorsement! And, “I will stop all federal funding for for-profit charter schools.” Only about 16 percent of charter schools across the country are operated by for-profit entities.
2021, a small provision tucked into a massive federal budget proposal put forth by the Democrat House Appropriations Committee would cut money for charter schools by $40 million and could potentially limit many charter schools from receiving federal funds altogether.
March 2022, the Biden administration’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education issued 13 pages of rules designed to cut off charter schools from federal support and that will likely serve as a model for state regulations limiting charters. One of the new regulations essentially provides public schools with veto power over a decision to locate a charter school in their area.Newsweek, “A plain reading of the text makes the absurdity obvious. Charter schools compete with public schools. The Biden Administration is trying to force charters to be subservient to traditional public schools.”
Leaders across the charter school community have said the new requirements would quell the growth of such schools.
MAY 2023, new rules proposed by the Education Department to govern a federal grant program for charter schools are drawing bipartisan backlash and angering parents, who say the Biden administration is seeking to stymie schools that have fallen out of favor with many Democrats but maintain strong support among Black and Latino families.
CONCLUSIONS
The U.S. is becoming increasingly more functionally illiterate. Covid was a setback in terms of the numbers of K-12 students who are not proficient in all of their subjects; but results from Covid are an anomaly in an ongoing national education crisis; post-pandemic proficiency is still on the decline.
Various studies and statistics tell us that students who come from lower-income families or students who are English language learners have higher success and performance rates in charter schools than their public-school counterparts.
Generally, across the nation, charter school students score higher on achievement tests than students in government-run public schools.
A study from Bellwether Education Partners shows charter schools are finding what works through innovation, replicating their success and ultimately producing accelerated achievement gains for students.
BOTTOM LINE:
If we want to help minority Americans, we need to give them a better education and thereafter a better chance at a better life. But our education president’s track record speaks for itself; he will forego desperately needed improvement in education because of his blind fanatical support for unions.
Mr. President, listen to Americans and then build policies to support them; 67% of voters support school choice and it is increasing every year. Stop your senseless pandering to unions; they are not part of the education solution. We have an education national crisis and you won’t even talk about it. Obviously, you are not actively looking for solutions with your anti-charter school stance. You, Mr. president, with your leadership of the Democrat Party, are standing in the way of potential progress especially for minorities and low-income families; those you profess to care about. Your conduct is shameful and unamerican.
The Wall Street Journal has an insightful concluding remark in their article, “The real reason the unions object to more charter schools is that charter school learning proves there is no excuse for failing children.” Amen.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, and a new book May 2022, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.