Hillary Clinton Rushes to Clarify Charter Critique in Sit-Down with AFT and Data-Driven Blog Post

Late last week, Clinton policy advisor Ann O’Leary published a lengthy data-driven post on Medium trumpeting that, yes, Clinton does support charter schools but that her critiques about equity hold true. O’Leary writes that Clinton has long supported charter schools and their potential to transform students lives; in fact, as Clinton has suggested, traditional public schools should be able to distill and implement best practices derived from charter schools.

“Ensuring accountability and transparency is hard work. But those concerned about leaving students in failing traditional schools should be just as concerned about leaving kids in failing charter schools. This may seem obvious, but the evidence for accountability is clear: closing charter schools for poor performance contributes to improved student outcomes.”

O’Leary then pivots to Clinton’s case that charters benefit from selective enrollment, leaving public schools “often in a no-win situation because they do, thankfully, take everybody.” She cites a recent report from the National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools which found that on average special education students made up 10.42 percent of total enrollment in charter schools compared to 12.55 percent of the total enrollment in traditional public schools. She continues that there is no “widely-accepted” answer for this enrollment gap.

The union recently released excerpts from that conversation, and again, she confronts charters head-on. When asked by an Ohio charter school educator how she would hold charter schools to the same standards as public schools and foster more collaboration between the two groups, Clinton repeats her calls for increased accountability: “They have to be held to high standards, and if they are working like the one you work at, why aren’t there more using the model that you have pioneered?” Clinton says. “And so, from my perspective, again, I want to go to the research.  What are the good models and where are they found, and how do you do more of what works instead of reinventing the wheel all the time?”

In the week since Clinton spoke with Martin, education allies have rallied around her. In a call with reporters on Monday, Weingarten reportedly defended the presidential candidate from criticism surrounding her charter statements, arguing that Clinton can both support charters while criticizing certain aspects of the charter school movement. But critics have pounced, alleging that her anti-charter rhetoric is further evidence that Clinton is paying back teachers unions for their early and influential endorsement. (Clinton has stopped just short of saying the expansion of charter schools hurts traditional public schools). “Clinton’s script on charters might as well be written by AFT President Randi Weingarten,” read a New York Post editorial under the headline, “Hillary Clinton’s bought-and-paid-for betrayal of charter schools.”

Her new, carefully-calibrated commentary on both charter schools and test-based accountability is unlikely to squash that kind of criticism. In fact, it may actually add fuel to the fire that she is trying to pander both to the unions and pro-charter civil rights groups. 

In an interview with The Seventy Four conducted a couple days after he interviewed Clinton, Martin himself underscored what he saw as contradictory statements: “She was in a sense trying to have it both ways and walk a fine line. What I mean by both ways: She was trying to certainly agree with those of us who believe in charters…she has already been in support of charters…but at the same time she was trying to recognize the support that she has from teachers unions. She was trying to walk that very fine line.”