Biden Administration Takes Aim at Charter Schools – Opinion

Biden’s administration sees the chance to focus on charter schools while the attention is on Ukraine and its economic woes. Many public schools have used the same curriculum in their classrooms. The White House seeks to enforce measures that make it more difficult for parents to select where and how they educate their children.

The New York Post reported that the Biden administration’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education slipped 13 pages of rules into the $1.5 trillion proposal to fund government agencies. These provisions could effectively block federal funding for charter schools.

The president appears to be trying to tilt the process against charter school opponents. Instead of giving input for two months, which is the norm, the White House will only allow input for one month and is restricting the process. The NY Post explained that “to ensure transparency, proposed new regulations are published in the Federal Register, with lengthy public-comment periods before rules are finalized.” These comment periods are intended to give “time for experts, interest groups and the public to offer input, making regulations both more legitimate and more realistic.”

These rules are problematic because they include several problems. For starters, it recommends that charter schools wishing to receive federal funding “collaborate with at least one traditional public school” and “provide a letter from each partnering traditional public school or school district demonstrating a commitment to participate in the proposed charter-traditional collaboration.”

These rules will require that public schools and charter schools get their approval.

The proposed rules would require charters to prepare a “community impact analysis” showing “unmet demand for the charter school, including any over-enrollment of traditional public schools.” Since many parents have already pulled their kids from public school to pursue other educational options for their children, this creates a situation in which these institutions are under-enrolled, meaning that low-income parents would no longer be able to choose a different school.

Even further, the provisions would require charters to report on the “racial and socio-economic diversity of students and teachers” in the school and “the impact of the charter school on racial and socio-economic diversity in the public school district.” The administration likely created this rule because it knows that charter schools typically serve low-income students – which means the socio-economic diversity might not be up to par as far as the federal government is concerned.

The White House will require charter schools to disclose any contracts they have with for profit companies like tutoring or food service. Public school districts will not have to bear this responsibility.

What is the answer? RealitätMotive behind this decision?

A piece of NewsweekDarvio Morrison sums it all up well:

They are doing it because they have to. It should be clear to anyone paying attention that there are people inside the administration who don’t give a damn about providing equal access to education. They expect low-income parents and children to wait until they can provide you with their system controlled “utopia.” If your child ends up with a poor education in the meantime, that was just a sacrifice for the “greater good.”

However, I believe that charter school attacks are also an attempt to counter rising anti-public school attitudes. Parents of all socio-economic backgrounds have become alarmed at the far-leftist ideas being pushed in America’s classrooms. They don’t want their kids being subjected to ideas inspired by Critical Race Theory. This group does not wish teachers to teach their kids about sexuality, gender identity, and sexuality. They want their children to be able to read, do math and learn other important subjects.

The rate at which private schools and homeschooling has increased precipitously in the last few years can be attributed to several factors. One of the main reasons is concerns about what teachers present to students. So it’s not surprising that parents seek alternatives. Public schools that are more focused on education than on learning seem to be more interested in awoken agenda. In light of this, it is probably safe to assume that Biden’s actions against charter schools will only be the first of the Democrats’ efforts to limit school choice.

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