Bernie Sanders is struggling to connect with minority voters, partially because of his positions on education, a prominent Democrat says.
In an op-ed for the New York Daily News, Shavar Jeffries says: “Blacks and Latinos should be disappointed in [Sanders’] defense of status-quo public schools.” Jeffries is the president of Democrats for Education Reform, an organization that wants to expand public school choice.
In 1998, while still in the House of Representatives, Sanders voted in favor of the Charter School Expansion Act. That act, as the name implies, allowed more federal dollars to flow to charter schools.
Today, Sanders opposes charter schools because they supposedly undermine democracy and take money from public schools. “This flawed argument ignores that public charters are public schools, and glosses over the life-changing outcomes produced by charters around the country,” Jeffries says [emphasis in original].
The evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of charter schools on this issue. Millions of students now attend charter schools across the country. In cities with lousy public schools, charter schools give students an opportunity at a better life. “In communities like Newark, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., public charters have helped to improve test scores and graduation rates, particularly in poor and minority communities that have too often been overlooked,” Jeffries says. Those are the same voters Sanders needs to be trying harder to reach.
So why the flip-flop? It could legitimately be that Sanders has changed his mind on charter schools in the past 18 years. Alternatively, it could be that Sanders is trying to take a harsher stance against charters than Hillary Clinton. Although Clinton is endorsed by both of the largest national teachers’ unions in the country, many union members would have liked to see a more open process that gave Sanders a closer look. Sanders may think he can hold on to votes from those union members if he takes a hard-line stance against charters, which draw ire from teachers’ unions.
Interestingly, Jeffries also opposes Sanders’ proposal for tuition-free public colleges. “Sanders focuses on funding, not outcomes,” Jeffries says. “His plan is mostly about the adults — not about whether colleges should be pressed to improve graduation rates for economically disadvantaged and minority students.”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
