The heads of three major charter school networks with schools in Brooklyn – KIPP, Achievement First and Uncommon Schools –blasted President Trump in an op-ed published in USA Today last week.
And in a rare détente of sorts in the ongoing funding and citing of schools battle between charter and regular public schools, both a top official in Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s administration, and the United Federation Of Teachers (UFT) offered kudos on Twitter and retweeted the op-ed.
Although charter schools stand to benefit from Trump’s proposed “skinny budget” that provides an additional $168 million in funding, the leaders said they could not support the proposal because it would drastically cut programs that are critical for underserved students and their families.
“We realize that expressing concerns about a budget that benefits our schools might seem counterintuitive,” they wrote. “But we want to join with all those who are fighting to defend public education as an essential pillar of our democracy.”
The leaders wrote that they are “determined to do everything in our power to work with Congress and the administration to protect the programs that are essential to the broader needs of our students, families and communities.”
The leaders represent schools that serve more than 220,000 children across 24 states. The op-ed was bylined by Dacia Toll, co-CEO of Achievement First, which operates schools in Brooklyn, Richard Barth, CEO of KIPP Foundation, which has schools in Brooklyn, Harlem, Washington Heights and the Bronx, and Brett Peiser, the CEO of Uncommon Schools, which operates schools in Brooklyn, Rochester and Troy, New York.
“We felt that it was important to take a stand for the 16,200 students and families we serve, and the millions of other families around the country who would be hurt by the cuts to critical services and programs in the Administration’s budget proposal,” said Peiser, CEO of Uncommon Schools, which operates 22 public charter schools in Brooklyn. “We care about so much more than charter schools – we care about the broad needs of our kids and communities, and we will continue to fight for them.”
Writing in the 74Million, education writer Richard Whitmire called the op-ed a “rebuke of an administration that vows to pursue successful school choice options — an accomplishment these charter groups have already achieved.”
For the charter school leaders, Whitmire wrote, “witnessing the racism and nativism stirred up by both the Trump campaign and presidency has been nothing short of horrifying. Those issues aren’t mentioned in the op-ed, but absent those issues, there’s no way these leaders would be biting the hand trying to feed them.”
The op-ed drew immediate support from de Blasio’s Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives Richard Buery who retweeted the editorial with the comment, “Important editorial from #charterschools leaders @KIPP @achievement1st & @UncommonSchools on Trump budget”
The UFT also retweeted the op-ed with no comment attached.
