Unbelievable.
The NYT editorial board tees-off on charter schools in today’s paper. They specifically cite California and Michigan as demonstrating the pitfalls of charters. Nevermind that data from both states shows a lot of promise for charters (in CA, 4th-grade charter school students did about as well as other public school students according to the new NAEP data that started this whole thing and in MI results on the 2003 state test are very encouraging although there were gaps on the new NAEP–not accounting for race and poverty).
More importantly, the effort to hang all this around President Bush’s neck is ridiculous. Let’s not forget that President Clinton was a strong charter school supporter as are many liberals and liberal-leaning organizations. Maybe criticize Bush for not doing more to support charter schools, public school choice, and the creation of new public schools in distressed communities!
Anyway, Eduwonk very much hopes that George Bush loses in November, too! But this burn the village to save it mentality is remarkably counterproductive to what should be liberal goals.
Update: They’ve lost The Prospect!