FAIRFIELD, IOWA – Presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said that he recognizes concerns that activists raise about charter schools but that local leaders should be allowed to make “decisions that elevate the best educational possibilities of their children.”

“I’ve seen charter school models that are outrageous and unacceptable. I’ve seen charter laws propagated by Republicans that just outright dangerous. And so I understand those people, I’m one of them, that wants to stop those kind of movements,” Booker told the Washington Examiner at a campaign stop in Fairfield, Iowa, on Friday evening, responding to Democratic primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposal to overhaul charter schools.