Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised public charter schools Tuesday, saying they help students, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
“I think we have more charters that are making a real difference in kid’s lives, however you define it, and that’s a great thing,” Duncan said at a charter schools event hosted by the centrist Brookings Institution. He was referring to studies showing that students who attended charter schools boost their lifetime earnings, do better academically and learn extra days’ worth of reading and mathematics, among other benefits. Those benefits are particularly strong in “communities who need the most help,” Duncan says.
“The charter movement is making huge strides. … And we need to learn those lessons. … We’re asking the Department of Education for a huge increase in funding to replicate high performers and help them serve more kids.”
Duncan also said that, for him, the issue is not about adding more charter schools but high-quality public schools of any type. For example, he said it was a good thing hundreds of low-performing charter schools have closed in the past few years.
Charter schools are publicly funded and do not charge tuition. Compared to traditional public schools, charters have more independence and flexibility in their operations and curricula, which is why so many families find charters desirable. They are open to all students, but they often don’t have enough space to meet demand. In that case, they use a lottery system to determine admission.
Duncan was President Obama’s secretary of education from 2009 through 2015, when he retired. It was announced Friday that Duncan would be joining Brookings as a nonresident senior fellow in the institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
