Unions attacking school reopenings are only endangering students

Washington Examiner | September 18, 2019
By Jeanne Allen, Founder and CEO of CER

When public forums are framed in deliberately misleading language, we know there’s harmful intent to spread disinformation. In Washington, D.C., anti-charter school forces are organizing community forums clad in pleasing language like “transparency” and “accountability.” But their ultimate goal is the destruction of education choices for some of the most vulnerable children of Washington. Those choices lifted a failed, mismanaged system out of disaster, improved education for thousands and brightened the futures for tens of thousands of kids.

Thanks to charter schools, students once stuck in failing schools are learning, people are moving back to the city specifically for those schools, and the economy is booming.

But that’s not good enough for the mostly newer entrants to the city who would not have dreamed of living here (like many of us do and did) before the hot bars and restaurants came along. They don’t move to Ward 7 or 8, but they want to thwart the parents living there from having the choices they have. Instead, these upper-crusters move to the more affluent sections where shopping is a hop, skip, and a jump away, and they enroll their kids in their schools of choice — a choice they would deny to parents without their inherited advantages. Or, they buy into affluent neighborhoods where they can afford to be near a great public school.

They think that the schools are great for their kids, and in large part they are. But the reality is their financial and neighborhood advantage starts their kids out at much higher levels and results in higher performing schools. If you’re looking for a textbook example of “white privilege,” you need look no further.

Yet across the city, more than 120 charter schools serving almost 50% of the city’s students are laser-focused on serving kids and parents who don’t live in Washington’s fancy, upscale neighborhoods but do insist on quality education for their children. These parents, grandparents, and guardians know that charters are delivering top-quality results — the schools are high-performing and highly accountable, which is why they are highly in demand.

Except for one thing, the general public would see evidence of this daily. Most of the parents whose children attend charter schools don’t have the luxury of time to show up at meetings to counter the atrocious and immoral allegations of these allegedly progressive parents who can go to these meetings on their way to and from Whole Foods and Bloomingdale’s. These so-called progressives oppose charter schools and are now pressuring and coercing leading African American community members by making them feel that their choices, or those of their neighbors, are somehow all a plot to help someone else.

Parents of kids in charters and the thousands (yes, thousands) on waiting lists are working, struggling, and sticking to their own business trying to provide a brighter future for their kids through a top-quality education. Meanwhile, the so called promoters of good public education are holding forums, attending city council meetings, and feeding bad media bad stories. Unions and their friends are funding this nonsense against the best interests of children.

As city council and mayoral staff are acting on the poison arrows being thrown, there is real danger afoot in Washington, D.C., for all who value great education. It’s time to stop them. Attend the next city council hearing on Oct. 2 and speak up. Call the mayor. Find out more about what you can do by joining advocates to endthelist.org. Above all, do your homework so that kids’ opportunities are no longer poisoned by the selfish acts of adults.

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Founded in 1993, the Center for Education Reform aims to expand educational opportunities that lead to improved economic outcomes for all Americans — particularly our youth — ensuring that conditions are ripe for innovation, freedom and flexibility throughout U.S. education.