by James C. Sherlock
One of the most curious aspects of discussions about Virginia, school choice, and charter schools is that Virginia progressives attack both as a conservative plot.
And mostly get away with it.
The claim is demonstrably preposterous, but effective so far because Republicans don’t offer an organized response.
I offer a map of the United States annotated with the percentage of public school kids attending public charter schools in 2019.
If Virginia progressives can discern some pattern of red states vs. blue states, they should speak up.
State laws vary, but each of the states with significant numbers of charters has a state-appointed charter authority that is not dependent upon approval by local school boards.
“Conservative” Washington, D.C., had 43% of its public school kids in charters.
Far from being totalitarianism, as goes the progressive line in Virginia, this is the result of popular constitutional amendments in virtually every state shown above in green.
Seems voters in those states wanted parents with kids in their worst schools to have options.
So will the voters of Virginia. Just show them the map during the campaign. Continue reading