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Teacher-centric is good, but student-centric is better

  • July 17, 2020
  • Tressa Pankovits
“Providing a World-Class Education in Every ZIP Code” is the title of Joe Biden’s education task force policy recommendations, released last week. Given his long record of support for high-quality public schools, there’s no reason to doubt the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s sincerity. As president, surely, he’d wave a magic wand and instantly make every American child’s school a great one, if he could.

But the “unity” task force left out some important voices. It included both presidents of the two largest teachers’ unions, as well as several vocal critics of public charter schools. Excluded from the task force was any representative of the 3.3 million mostly Black and brown families who depend on charter schools for equitable access to quality education. In fact, no Black education stakeholders, other than Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), were given a seat at this particularly important table — a puzzling omission against the backdrop of current events, not to mention the Obama-Biden administration’s strong backing of charters.

Given its makeup, it’s no surprise that the task force report trots out the oft-refuted canard that charter schools “undermine” traditional schools. The National Education Association (NEA) used identical language in a 2017 policy statement pledging “forceful support” for limiting charter schools. “The growth of charters has undermined local public schools and communities, without producing any overall increase in student learning and growth,” the NEA claimed.

Read the full piece here.

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