In the summer of 2021, President Biden signed an executive order “promoting competition in the American economy.” The order was meant to signal that increased competitiveness would be a priority of his entire administration. It lists a host of policies aimed at a number of industries, including agriculture, railroads, pharmaceuticals, and banks. “Robust competition is critical to preserving America’s role as the world’s leading economy,” it reads.
Conspicuously absent from this broad commitment to competition is anything about the education industry. More than almost any other industry in America, the education industry is monopolized, with government as the monopolizer. Students are districted into public schools and face various hurdles to attend different ones. Teachers are protected from competition for their jobs by powerful labor unions, often working in concert with the government.
And, of course, Joe Biden is perfectly fine with that. In fact, his administration is seeking to quash the little competition that does exist in the education industry.
In a Friday news dump in March, the Department of Education released new rules aimed at charter schools. Charter schools are public schools that operate using public funds, but they are operated by private companies and allowed more flexibility in designing instruction than traditional public schools. Charter schools are where innovation happens within the public-school system, and they compete with traditional public schools for students and staff.
Until now, many Democratic politicians have made an uneasy truce with charter schools. The results are hard to deny: Charter schools give options to the low-income, largely racial-minority students who are served the worst by traditional public schools. Democrats like to talk about education as a ticket out of poverty, and charter schools have, in many cases, punched that ticket better than traditional public schools.
But Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who have both praised charter schools, did not promise to be “the most pro-union president in history,” as Biden has. And unions, well, they hate competition.
The Department of Education rules would recommend that charter schools “collaborate” with traditional public schools even though the whole point of charter schools is their independence. Requiring collaboration with existing public schools basically gives them a veto on new charter schools in their area should they withhold their assent.
The rules would require charter schools to prove they are needed by demonstrating that traditional public schools are over-enrolled. Over-enrollment is common in well-off areas that already have good schools, meaning that students from low-income families living in areas with bad schools could see potential charter options disappear.
Charter schools would also, under the rules, need to report to the feds about racial and socioeconomic diversity, even though it is well known that many charter schools serve poor majority-minority communities already.
Eighteen Republican governors sent a letter to the secretary of education opposing the new rules. They pointed out that the notice-and-comment period was too short, and the administration appears to be rushing the regulations through. They said, rightly, that “it is a certainty that the expansion of such burdensome regulations will make it more difficult — if not impossible — for independent and smaller charter schools to access federal funds.”
The American Federation of Teachers, of course, is in full support. In its letter to the Department of Education enthusiastically supporting the new regulations, it made sure to mention “how beneficial it can be when charter and district teachers belong to the same union,” which is not always the case currently. The AFT then described how such an arrangement works in Chicago, the city whose teachers union cares so much about students that it went on strike for an entire school week earlier this year over baseless Covid concerns after even risk-averse Anthony Fauci and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in-person K–12 instruction was safe.
Over 7,000 charter schools in the U.S. provide education to over 3 million students, with more on waiting lists. If the Department of Education actually put education first, it would be finding new ways to let people start charter schools, not making it harder to do so. Clearly, the AFT didn’t send 99.6 percent of its campaign contributions to Democrats for nothing.
You can’t be pro-competition and pro-union, and the charter rules leave no doubt which the Biden administration is.