These Ways to Cool the Charter-School Wars Probably Won’t
The battle lines are so rigid that combatants can’t see that new Biden administration guidelines actually have benefits for all sectors of public education.
What are we fighting about, again?
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesForget the battle over critical race theory. The latest salvos in the public-school culture wars are being fired over the federal charter schools program and the sensible guidelines that are being proposed by the administration of President Joe Biden.
Congress extended the program in March, approving $440 million for state agencies to help charters with startup expenses such as staffing and technology. Almost immediately, the White House is received a barrage of criticism for issuing guidelines intended, most importantly, to rein in charter-school funding abuses.