Rather than trolling campaign contributions, for Abbott, showing up with cameras at IDEA and KIPP is about getting votes. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), and Rep. Cantor are pushing a political strategy for Republicans to " talk up school choice at every turn ."
"Talking about helping poor minority children softens the GOP's image and lets candidates offer a positive vision instead of forever going on the attack," explains Politico's Stephanie Simon. "And unlike immigration reform, school choice is politically safe; there's no chance of blowback from the Tea Party." Republicans particularly see this as a strategy to appeal to Latinos, where they think they can make inroads.
Not only can Republicans keep their far-right wing at bay by advocating charter schools in a school choice paradigm, suggesting minimal governmental intrusion (even though charters operate within public school systems), but they can even appeal to Democrats and present themselves as bipartisan. While some Democrats might have major misgivings about vouchers and tax credits for private schools, they are politically squishier about charter schools, often supporting the Republican position on higher charter school caps and easier charter school authorizations, just at somewhat lower levels.
And for Abbott in particular, it allows the Texas Republican candidate to steer clear of speaking out on broader issues of public schools. Last year, the Texas system of school finance was declared unconstitutional in the courts. The judge in that case is now hearing testimony as to what funding should be put into the public schools , including the restoration of at least $3.4 billion of $5.4 billion in education funding that the state cut from public schools in 2011. An expert testifying on behalf of the 600 public school districts that sued the state over finances claims school districts need at least $1,000 more per pupil in order to meet minimum standards. As the state's attorney general, Abbott may have to avoid commenting on the specifics of the funding case , substituting advocacy of charter schools and virtual schools as the contours of his education platform, but it is all but impossible to imagine Abbott coming out in favor of returning billions to the public schools that his Republican political partners in the legislature slashed.
This new charter school strategy by multiple Republican gubernatorial candidates isn't just serendipitous. It is a conscious strategy--kinder, gentler, and kid-focused-- for a Republican Party that generally has not supported the strengthening of public schools. Perhaps charter schools in Texas and elsewhere feel that they are not in a position to deny politicians like Abbott the opportunity to shoot TV ads in their facilities, especially if today's denied politician turns out to be tomorrow's governor. It might be a little bit awkward for charter schools, many of them managed by nonprofits like KIPP, to find themselves positioned by Abbott, Walker, and others as avatars for reduced public sector support of public school systems. Maybe some, however, are not all that discomfited by their use as props in Republican campaigns.
In a National School Choice Week editorial, Georgia Governor Deal lauded both private schools and charter schools as the means for parents " to ensure their child is getting an excellent education to compete in today's world ." He made his position on charter schools clear. "These schools are given greater flexibility in return for strong accountability for student academic success," Deal wrote. "By observing high-performing charter schools throughout Georgia, it's clear these institutions promote competition, innovation and creativity while encouraging strong parental involvement." He offered not a scintilla of analysis about how to make the public schools of Georgia, beyond the 310 charters already operating, also attractive choices for parents.
Deal didn't acknowledge how the $1.51 million given to the Georgia Charter Schools Association in the past few years by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus's foundation and the $3.99 million given to the Association by the Walton Family Foundation, much of it devoted to building charter school capacity, boosts the attractiveness of that choice over traditional public schools, whose staff are often scrounging for basic supplies and services. He didn't mention the past several years of grants to KIPP in Georgia, including at least $21.83 million in foundation grants to the KIPP Metro Atlanta Collaborative ($2.65 million from the Marcus Foundation, $9.46 million from the Community Foundation in Atlanta, and several large seven-figure grants and PRIs from various foundations for the construction of the KIPP Strive primary school), over $2 million for the KIPP West Atlanta Young Scholars Academy, and funds specifically targeted for KIPP Strive Academy and KIPP South Fulton Academy. These and other grants hint at the private capital that Deal's Democratic opponent Thurbert Baker pointed to in his explanation that charter schools' complaints about facilities funding, not to mention operations, might be a little unwarranted.
The Foundation Directory Online lists over 960 grants in the past several years in support of specific charter schools or charter school networks in Texas, more than half of them between 2008 and 2011. KIPP Academy pulled in 208 of those grants, eight of them in the seven-figure range, with major support from a couple of community foundations as well as the Houston Endowment, the M.D. Anderson Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and the Brown Foundation--plus over $40,000,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. YES Prep Southeast received 106 foundation grants or loans, including seven larger than $1 million. KIPP Aspire Academy got 40 grants, KIPP Truth Academy 35. The Laura and John Arnold Foundation made only a handful of grants, but one was for over $6 million in 2011 to the YES Prep Public Schools. Traditional public schools, which serve the bulk of students in Texas and elsewhere, can only dream about and salivate at these sources of private contributions.
Philanthropic money is flowing into the charter school networks of states where candidates like Abbott and Deal are riding the charter school campaign strategy toward, they hope, attracting black and Latino voters. While some funders such as the Walton Family do also invest in public school systems, many of these funders have made it clear where their hearts lie: in school choice that is increasingly independent of the traditional public schools, even if, in some cases, the philanthropic patrons, such as John and Laura Arnold, are known to be Democratic donors or bundlers. Republican gubernatorial candidates like Abbott, Rauner, Deal, and others have made their choices clear as well, looking to leverage their support of charter schools to attract the choices of voters who might not otherwise support their conservative candidacies.
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