An overlooked clash over education policy animates presidential race

It had nothing to do with the former Florida governor’s faltering campaign — several of the parents in the cheering crowd vowed they would never vote for him. It had everything to do, though, with the growing political tension over charter schools in the presidential election, an issue that has roiled Georgia, Wisconsin and everywhere in between.

“I’ve had a choice for the first time since I moved here from Chicago. I don’t see why there’s any divide,” said Latanya Wright, a proud Democrat whose 4-year-old son is a student at the school. “My kids get more help here. It really matters.”

The divided GOP presidential field has united over this, at least: an embrace of charter schools. The outsider-fueled insurgent candidacies of Ben Carson and Donald Trump and the establishment-tinged campaigns of Bush and Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio all trumpet support for “school choice” efforts.

But the candidates across the aisle are trying to strike a much more delicate balance as they court minority voters who tend to be more open to charter schools and voucher programs while currying favor with teacher unions who typically oppose the efforts.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, for one, ignited a minor firestorm with comments that signaled she was distancing herself from past support of charter schools shortly after she locked up the support of two of the major teachers groups.

And Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, her most serious Democratic challenger, has struck a neutral stance on charter schools while aggressively opposing the use of vouchers that let parents move children from struggling public schools to private ones with the help of state or federal funding.

The debate highlights a broader rift over federal education policy, which has so far been largely overlooked in a presidential campaign that focuses on bombastic personalities, competing economic plans, and immigration and foreign policy debates.

Clinton’s firestorm

The Republican presidential candidates’ calls for charter schools mirror the calls for school choice in Georgia that color every substantive debate about school policy here.

Gov. Nathan Deal and most other Republican officeholders aligned behind a 2012 ballot measure to give the state new powers to create charter schools, which won with support in heavily minority counties despite opposition from Democratic leaders.

And he championed a constitutional amendment to create a new statewide district with the power to take control of persistently failing schools. It narrowly achieved the two-thirds majority it needed in the Legislature with the help of a handful of Democrats; Deal’s allies are now mounting a campaign to pass the referendum, the final step for the amendment to take effect.

Teachers unions and Democratic leaders have historically opposed charter schools, saying they aren’t held to the same standards as traditional public schools. And they worry that shifting funding to charter schools and school voucher programs would ultimately undercut the public school system’s financial base.

Clinton, however, has tried to walk a fine line. She had long skirted the debate over charter schools that has divided her party. But she waded into the fight at a recent town hall meeting in South Carolina when she said that most charters “don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids or, if they do, they don’t keep them.”

Traditional public schools, she added, take all students but “don’t get the resources or the help and support they need to be able to take care of every child’s education.”

The remarks — and the scope of the fury that followed — forced her campaign to clarify. Her spokesman quickly affirmed that she remains a fan of the charter programs. Ann O’Leary, Clinton’s senior policy adviser, said the candidate’s comments show she is willing to ask “hard questions of a movement she has and will continue to support.”

A ‘deal breaker’

Republicans have long viewed school choice as a wedge issue to win over Democrats unhappy with their party’s education policy.

Most GOP presidential candidates say school voucher programs are the best method to boost the education of students in low-income areas. And most rail against policies they say give students little option to leave troubled local school districts.

In Georgia, Deal and other Republican leaders often cite the overwhelming endorsement of the 2012 charter school measure in majority-black counties such as Clayton as an example of how they can use school choice to make inroads to minorities and other Democrats.

And to some Georgia voters, Clinton’s remarks about charter schools prodded some soul-searching.

Monica Henson, the superintendent of a public charter school in Jasper and a self-described “lifelong Democrat,” said she supported Clinton’s candidacy before her comments about charter schools.

“Her comments were untruthful and parroted anti-charter school propaganda,” said Henson, who called them a “deal breaker.” Now, she said, she’s siding with Rubio because of his support for technical college programs.

Teachers unions and other traditional supporters of Democrats are confident their supporters will rally behind Clinton.

“Charter does not mean better,” Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in the wake of Clinton’s comments. She said the schools must be held to the same standards as neighborhood public schools “particularly now, given that half the children in public schools are poor.”

The scene at La Casa de Esperanza in Waukesha, a town of about 70,000 west of Milwaukee, underscored the challenges Republicans face.

Both Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who recently dropped out of the presidential race, received ovation after ovation from a crowd of many Hispanic and black families. But winning over converts to the GOP may prove much harder.

Pam Mantanona, who sends her 5-year-old daughter to the school, was unsparing in her praise of teachers and administrators who treat her like “family.”

“It’s the best thing to ever happen here. The opportunities she’ll have are better than I can ever imagine,” said Mantanona, who has supported Democrats in past elections but describes herself as an independent.

Luring her vote next November will be more difficult.

“I don’t know the politics. I just know it works,” she said. “And I know I’ll be watching the campaigns.”