Teacher Union Money Decides Presidential Education Views
It is no surprise to anyone that the vast panoply of Democrat presidential candidates are not supporting choice. As one pundit stated, “the teacher unions are the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.” Democrat presidential candidates, including Kamala Harris, are falling all over themselves to toe the teacher union line on educational choice, or lack thereof. The theme is “Follow the Money” all the way. Teacher unions, of course, especially in light of the National Right to Work Legal Foundation Janus decision last year, are scrambling to keep and extend their power over schools. A prohibition on charter schools would suit teacher union officials just fine, eliminating a very powerful competitor. Charter schools are anathema to teacher unions except for their own little experiments with them. Teacher unions have prohibitively powerful laws on the books in many states allowing monopoly bargaining over their terms of employment. Let us never forget past-President George Fischer clearly stated the NEA’s goal was to control all aspects of education. Monopoly bargaining is a good beginning, corralling all teachers. Patrick Gleason has the story on forbes.com.
Senator Harris talks about desegregating schools through busing while opposing modern day policies that would expand school choice and she, like her primary competitors, rejects reforms that would allow minority children and their parents to enroll in the schools of their choosing, without being tethered by their zip code to substandard, failing, and possibly dangerous schools.
Other Democrats running for president, including those who used to embrace school choice, all now oppose policies that expand school choice. These policies include education savings accounts, education scholarship tax credits, school vouchers, and reforms that lift caps on the number of charter schools or simply allow their existence in the first place, as West Virginia lawmakers recently voted to do.