The treatment by many Democratic politicians of high-performing public charter schools as boogeymen has undermined the fact that many of these schools are serving low-income urban children across the country in ways that are inclusive, equitable, publicly accountable and locally driven. When I was mayor of Newark, we invested in both traditional public schools and high-performing public charter schools. 1 city in America for “beat the odds” high-poverty, high-performance schools by the Center on Reinventing Public Education. And we didn’t just blindly invest in good public charter schools, Newark closed bad ones too. That must mean significantly increasing funding for public schools, raising teacher pay, fully funding the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, investing in universal preschool, eliminating child poverty — and yes, supporting high-performing public charter schools if and when they are the right fit for a community, are equitable and inclusive, and play by the same rules as other public schools.

Source: New York Times November 18, 2019 11:01 UTC