Criticism of teacher unions for obstructing parental choice in K-12 education is rarely, if ever, heard at a Democratic National Convention, where large numbers of delegates are activists in teacher unions.
This year was different—well, almost.
At an August 24 pre-convention seminar in Denver, a group of high-ranking Democrats came out strongly for charter schools, which are independently managed public schools that families and teachers are free to choose. And they laid the wood to the teacher unions – notably the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers—for trying to sabotage the charter movement.
A liberal magazine, The American Prospect, described one of the Democratic leaders, Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, as having celebrity status at the DNC “as a young African American leader said to have the ear of [Democratic presidential nominee] Barack Obama.” In an August 25 article, The Prospect quoted Booker as telling the seminar that when he advocated choice 10 years ago, “I was literally brought into a broom closet by a union, and told I would never win office if I kept talking about charters.”
Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer joined Booker in urging Democrats to boost the charter/choice movement despite union obstructionism.
Unfortunately, during the convention itself, featured speakers didn’t go to bat for school choice in any form. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton said the objective should be “to create a world-class education system and make college affordable again.” Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, the keynote speaker, expressed a vague technocrat’s vision: “Every kid will be trained for the jobs of the 21st Century.”
Finally, in his acceptance speech, Obama merely echoed those themes, asserting government has an obligation to “provide every child a world-class education” (something no orator seems ever to define). Obama’s suggestions were to pump even more taxpayer money into early childhood education, teacher pay, and free tuition for college students who commit to public service.
The Democrats’ presidential candidate spoke not a word about empowering parents to choose better K-12 schools for their children. Earlier in the convention, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick had a personal story that would have been a perfect lead-in to a pitch for such empowerment. Recalling that he had attended “overcrowded, sometimes violent public schools” on Chicago’s South Side, Patrick said, “I got my break in 1970 when I came to Massachusetts on a scholarship to boarding school. For me, that was like landing on a different planet.”
Unfortunately, his party is against giving the same opportunity in 2008 to other kids in lousy, dangerous public schools by allowing the rise of innovative charter schools their folks could choose for them right in their home district, or voucher/scholarship plans enabling them to escape to a good private school as Patrick did.
Patrick said nothing about helping all families get that kind of break.
Away from the convention, however, growing numbers of Democratic officeholders are backing various kinds of school choice. Democratic lawmakers in such states as Louisiana, Maryland, and New Jersey are advocating increased parental choice. Democratic governors in Arizona, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have signed legislation expanding existing choice programs or starting new ones.
Given the growing Democratic support for school choice, the Obama convention organizers missed an opportunity to connect with families desperately seeking a way out of failing public schools. The extent of that mistake will depend on what message about choice the Republicans deliver at their national convention in Minneapolis next week.
Addressing the NAACP convention on July 16, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain called for expanding the D.C. school voucher program, giving charter school principals more direct fiscal authority, increasing alternative certification of teachers, and providing families more educational options through virtual schools and other means.
In his July 14 remarks to the NAACP, Obama emphasized not parental rights but personal responsibility, urging parents to limit their kids’ TV and video game time and to give them more direct guidance. He returned to that theme in his acceptance speech.
As the presidential race enters its critical fall stage, will Obama defer to the teacher unions and leave school choice advocacy to McCain despite growing support for choice within Democratic ranks? The contrast will be instructive, and in a close race it could be decisive.
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Robert Holland (holland@heartland.org) is a senior fellow for education policy with The Heartland Institute in Chicago.