Presidential Candidates And Charter Schools

Joe Williams’ blog post from a day or two ago on the presidential candidates and charter schools(http://www.dfer.org/2007/07/presidential_ca.php#more <http://www.dfer.org/2007/07/presidential_ca.php#more> ):

Presidential Candidates And Charter Schools


A friend emailed to ask why I wasn't making a bigger deal over the fact  that many of the Democratic presidential hopefuls are supporters of public  charter schools. Yes:
 

-- Sen. Hillary Clinton has said many times (including during her speech <http://www.nysun.com/article/57753>  at  Pander-palooza '07 yesterday) that she is a strong supporter of charter  schools and public school choice.
 

-- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson told a crowd at the National Association  of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials con-fab that he  supports charter schools <http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushill0701,0,7811715.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines> .
 

-- Sen. Barack Obama frequently notes (including once at a  fundraiser I attended for him at Steven Gluckstern's house in Manhattan) that  he was one of the strongest supporters of charter schools when he was in the  Illinois legislature.
 
 
 

It is worth noting that the support from Clinton and Obama, for example,  has been longstanding, and that the climate is generally becoming more  hospitable for political support these days. (And note: please feel free to  email in any other statements out there from the presidential field so I  can keep this tally updated.)
 

But here is the thing: It is important that these politicians are  supportive of what should be a no-brainer of a public policy. I think they are  even right to throw in qualifiers about how charter schools must be held  accountable, etc.
 

The reason I don't get all that excited is that charter schools are  easy. Seriously, the only reason they are controversial is because the  public education cartel decided they were controversial. As mechanisms for  crearting good, accoutnable, innovative public schools there is no good reason  that ANY Democratic politician should oppose good charter school laws.
 

Duh.
 

I am a charter school supporter, even though I get into trouble when I use  phrases like "cute little charter schools." I just think that they are an  important means to an end (a better system of publicly-accountable  schools) than the end in and of themselves.
 

So while I, and many of my DFER friends, applaud this common-sense support  for charter schools, it doesn't even begin to touch the kind of changes that  are going to be necessary to make all of our schools the kinds of places where  GREAT teachers will want to work, where parents will want to send their kids,  and where kids will be able to thrive academically.
 

Necessary, but not sufficient, baby.