On Sunday, The Washington Post ran a house editorial that should shame not just all the education bureaucrats and rank-and-file teachers in the District of Columbia but all across the country.
The basic points of the editorial are not at issue:
1. D.C.'s publicly funded charter schools outperform conventional public schools. That's one of the reasons why 40 percent of the District's kids voluntarily enroll in them and why thousands are on waiting lists. 2. D.C.'s charter schools get about $16,000 in funding per pupil, compared to $29,000 per pupil for traditional schools. 3. The District's education establishment has made it next to impossible for charters to rent closed school buildings in a vindictive move to screw over competitors offering a cheaper, better alternative.
The Post calls for enforcing existing law, which "mandates equity between" charters and traditional (or legacy) schools, including in per-pupil funding. If charters are already outperforming traditional schools despite receiving $13,000 less in per-pupil spending, that strikes me as an argument for cutting funds to legacy schools—by about $13,000.
But when you read stuff like this, there can't be any misunderstanding that the education establishment—which includes school management teams, elected officials, union big shots, teachers, and other politically connected power-brokers—has next to no interest is fulfilling its major duty, which is to educate kids. The D.C. situation should be denounced by all people of good faith involved in public education.
Watch Reason Foundation's education analyst Lisa Snell explain "3 Reasons School Choice is Growing":
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