Big Labor Continues to Thwart Real Education Reform
Carol Thetford /
Friday’s Wall Street Journal highlights the increasing bipartisan support towards charter schools around the country. Due to rapid growth, many states have limited their expansion by placing caps on the number of charter schools. But Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has suggested that lifting charter school caps and instituting merit pay are essential steps in receiving grants under the “Race to the Top Fund” created by the Obama Administration’s stimulus bill.
Now even those who previously opposed charter schools are realizing the real hindrance to charter school expansion is special interest power. In the WSJ article, Mayor Tom Menino, a past critic of charters, expressed his frustration with the Boston Teachers Union:
“I’m just tired of it,” he said. “We’re losing kids.”