As a Democrat, I am disappointed in our presidential candidates’ stances against school choice.
I am a Democrat because I believe the government should support those in need. Because I believe in the fundamental rights to housing and affordable healthcare. And because as a white person, I want to work with minority communities to dismantle institutional racism. But this is also why I disagree with our democratic presidential candidates’ opposition to school choice.
I support high-quality school choice because I believe every family has the right to determine which school is best for their children. And I am not alone.
A 2017 survey found that 68% of Democrats rate independent private schools as excellent or good, and 48% of Democrats rate both charter schools and traditional schools equally positively as well. A 2018 poll by Education Next found that 58% of Democrats support tax credits that would pay for scholarships to help low-income parents send their children to private schools.
Furthermore, a 2017 GenForward survey found that a majority of millennials support charter schools, including 65% of African Americans, 61% of Asian Americans, and 58% of Latinos. The survey also found that the vast majority of millennials support school vouchers that would pay some of the tuition for low-income students to attend private schools.
Despite this wide array of support, several Democratic presidential candidates have adopted irresponsible and harmful rhetoric regarding school choice.
When Sen. Bernie Sanders called for a moratorium on federal funding for charter schools, all I could I think about was the millions of students who attend charter schools, their families, the teachers who work in them, and the million students on waiting lists. When Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she is against private school vouchers, I thought about the half a million students who attend private schools through a choice program, many of whom are lower income and live in underserved communities.
I wonder how these millions of students, families, and teachers feel, as contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination essentially tell them that they shouldn’t have a choice in where to send their child to school and that their only option should be the traditional public school in their neighborhood, regardless of whether that is what’s best for their child.
What these candidates all failed to mention is that the students who attend charter schools have better academic outcomes, are more likely to graduate from high school, attend and persist in college, and have future higher earnings.
A 2019 study in Florida found that tax credit scholarship students are more likely to go to and graduate from college than their public school peers. Similarly, a 2019 study found that students in Milwaukee’s school voucher program were more likely to enroll in college than their traditional public school peers.
Yet Sanders recently claimed that public charter schools have intensified racial segregation.
This rhetoric is disrespectful to the families of color who choose to send their children to charter schools or culturally affirming schools of choice. The idea that students of color can only learn when they are in the presence of white students is offensive and false, plus it conflates the decisions made by minority parents with racist segregation.
In June, presidential aspirant Pete Buttigieg said school vouchers take dollars out of public schools. But students and the funding attached to them do not belong to traditional schools. Rather, as James Shuls writes, “we must realize that public education is not about the school system, but the students that it is supposed to serve. They have value. They have worth. They should have choices.”
Are there school choice programs that need to improve?
Absolutely. However, there are also thousands of traditional schools that have been and are still not meeting the needs of our students. Rather than pick and choose which schools to critique, it is imperative that we hold all schools accountable for student success and give families the power and information necessary to choose the best educational environment for their children.
I hope more Democrats, and particularly Democratic policymakers, will start engaging in more conversations with the teachers who work in these schools, as well as the families and students who attend them, rather than engage in incendiary rhetoric that pits one against the other.
Because at the end of the day we all want the same thing: for all students to receive a relevant and rigorous education that prepares them for college, career, and life.
Krista Kaput is an education policy graduate student at the University of Minnesota. She is a former teacher in both public district schools and public charter schools.
