Nationalizing California’s War on School Choice

Gavin Newsom’s Board of Education Chair, Linda Darling-Hammond, is heading the Biden transition’s education arm. From the two leading candidates being pushed for the top job, Secretary of Education, there’s no doubt of the goal: to nationalize Newsom’s war on charters and school choice.

These candidates are not teachers, principals, superintendents, board members, or policymakers. They are the heads of massive union conglomerates – the national version of Newsom’s biggest political benefactors. Today, my GOP Assembly colleagues and I opposed the nomination of American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten or former National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen Garcia. You can read our letter here.

These two union bosses have called charters and school choice “misguided reforms” and “snake oil.” Their selection would surrender national education policy to cash-flush special interests, just as has happened in California.

Just this year, California’s biggest political spender, the CTA, successfully lobbied Newsom to close schools not matter the tragic consequences for millions of kids. At the union’s behest, Newsom also signed a bill dropped at the 11th hour to effectively stop charters from enrolling new students. A long-time equity advocate said, “In my 30 years of close involvement in the state budget process, I’ve never witnessed such an egregious abuse.”

The reason Gov. Newsom dislikes charters is because unionization is voluntary, not automatic – meaning less revenue for the special interests that spent millions getting him elected. It doesn’t matter that charters have proven to be the best hope for many underprivileged kids.

Last year, in a move condemned by civil rights groups, he signed a package of bills specifically designed to cripple charters, particularly AB 1505. The Urban Leagues of Greater Sacramento, San Diego, and Los Angeles described the bills as “a direct attack to the ability of African American parents to choose the best education possible for their children,” adding: “It is not fair to African American families to take away public charter schools and force them back into failing district-run schools.”

Three chapters of the NAACP passed a Resolution stating that “African American families are more likely to choose public charter schools” and that “African American students enrolled in public charter schools achieve academic outcomes exceeding their peers in district-run schools.”

California has staggering and ignominious achievement gaps. We rank 47th in fourth-grade math, 46th in fourth-grade reading, and 46th in fourth-grade science. We do even worse when it comes to kids who are in poverty.

This is the model Newsom’s team is now trying to force on the rest of the country.

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