Teacher Unions Push Control Over Kentucky Charter Schools

Will Kentucky teacher unions keep a tight rein on charter schools there?  A bill in the legislature would finally allow charter schools in the Bluegrass State, but teacher union officials and others are working to pass a charter school bill that would only allow local school boards to authorize charter schools.  This, of course, would allow union officials to control the schools.  Alyssia Finley has the story in The Wall Street Journal.

Kentucky is one of only seven states that doesn’t allow charter schools, making it something of an educational backwater. Republicans have been trying to pass charter-school legislation since 2009, only to be stymied by Democrats, who had a lock on the governorship and state House.

Even teachers unions and local school boards seem resigned to the inevitability of allowing charter schools. To limit the damage to their interests, they’re trying to exploit divisions among Republicans to keep charters tightly contained by conceding regulatory authority to the local boards. children’s futures are at stake.