Democratic Guide to Public Charter Schools, 3rd Edition

Public charter schools have a long history of bipartisan support and that includes, from their very beginnings, support from key Democrats and progressives. The relationship between Democrats and public charter schools, however, is currently a complicated one.

On one hand,

  • Democratic voters, especially voters of color, continue to rate public charter schools favorably in most major polls.
  • Moreover, public charter schools are concentrated in communities represented, by and large, by Democrats at all levels of government and show their most dramatic positive results for students of color and those from low-income families, constituencies for whom Democrats have historically claimed to be champions.

On the other hand,

  • In recent years we’ve seen some Democratic leaders move to a more anti-charter stance. During the 2020 Democratic Presidential primary, Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) both called for policies that would end federal support for new public charter schools.
  • And in blue states from coast to coast, we’ve seen Democratic governors and state legislatures slow or freeze charter school expansion.

If Democratic lawmakers want to be the champions of public education excellence and equity, they need to do some serious soul searching on how they position themselves on public charter schools.

Charter schools, as we discuss in this guide, aren’t all created equal, and some models are better than others, so not all criticisms should be summarily dismissed. But the idea that charter schools are anathema to the idea of public education and that they should be defunded or unconditionally curtailed is misguided and misinformed.

To the contrary, public charter schools continue to give millions of students access to a public school other than the one to which they would have been assigned. Millions more students are on charter school waiting lists.

Public school choice—including, in addition to public charter schools, magnet schools and career academies—gives parents the opportunity to choose a school within the public system that they feel provides the best education experience for their child.

In this 3rd edition of the Democratic Guide to Public Charters School, we:

  • Set the record straight on public charter school facts.
  • Trace the history of support for public charter schools by Democrats and progressives.
  • Present public opinion data showing strong support for public charter schools from key Democratic constituencies.
  • Review data showing high concentrations of public charter schools and students in Democratic strongholds.
  • Analyze research on public charter school performance in advancing student achievement.
  • Review federal and state policies key for sustaining, improving, and expanding public charter schools.

Read the full guide here.

The Real College Admissions Scandal

The real college admissions scandal is what’s happening legally – elite colleges engaging in unfair practices that undermine diversity and don’t reward merit. The embrace of early decision and legacy preferences on these campuses systematically and structurally benefit students that are overwhelmingly white and upper income.

Read our full memo on the Real College Admissions Scandal here.

Five Questions for Any Free College Plan

Nearly every Democrat — and likely a number of Republicans — running for statewide office this cycle will propose some sort of free college plan. Those plans need to be well-designed and in particular recognize the relationship between college affordability and college completion. Otherwise they are apt at best to under deliver, and at worst, do more harm than good for a large number of students who end up dropping out with no degree and student loan debt for non-tuition and fee costs to boot.

Free college advocates, sympathetic politicians, and policy architects should keep in mind two key points. First, college affordability for students and taxpayers is a function of time-to-degree. If we can just get students to complete on time, we can cut college costs by 20 to 33 percent. Second, if we can reduce the college dropout rate significantly lower than the 50 percent it now approaches, we will produce a sounder fiscal free college investment and be more likely to sustain continued political support.

Every free college plan should be measured against five key questions:

  1. Does the plan leverage improvements in high school academic preparation and college selection or is it only focused on financial aid?
  2. Does the plan cover both two-year and four-year public colleges or does it channel students into one public sector over the other?
  3. Does the plan cover all college costs, including room and board living expenses, books, and supplies or does it only cover tuition and fees?
  4. Does the plan support college efforts to boost completion and hold colleges accountable for results? Or, is it just a student aid increase?
  5. Does the plan cover all families, provide additional aid to only middle-income families, or target those from poor families?

Why those questions?

Because college degree completion depends primarily upon student academic preparation at the secondary school level, college selection, full-time enrollment, and the efforts of colleges themselves to support completion. Limited resources for college affordability should be leveraged against those in influences and targeted where need is greatest.

Check out the data in the latest report from Michael Dannenberg and Konrad Mugglestone here. For a slimmed down read, check out our latest article in Democracy Journal here.
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The High School – Higher Ed Nexus

Over the last several months, top Democratic officials have asked for our thoughts on how to respond to the public’s thirst for improved levels of college affordability.  Linked below is a powerpoint description of our suggested strategy.  It is geared toward federal policymakers, but the underlying principles are applicable, and in many cases have already been embraced, at the state and local level.

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How the Funky Fifteen Fared

Whether or not the modern era of education reform is ultimately successful will, in large part, come down to whether or not reformers can continue to influence the political power structure. In an election that was tough for Democrats anywhere in the country, DFER’s Hot Listdid pretty well.

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