About the NPE Action 2020 Presidential Candidates Project
Climate change. Health care. Taxes. These are topics that 2020 Presidential hopefuls are happy to discuss. But as important as these topics are, we cannot let our public schools be ignored.
In cities across this nation, public schools are disappearing. The city of New Orleans is now a system of privately run charter schools. Vouchers and voucher workarounds send taxpayer money from public schools to private and religious schools. Religious schools are flipping themselves into charters in order to get public funds. The Koch Brothers have promised to target five states in which they will work to make public education disappear.
Private “choice” is trumping public voice. Test scores are the rationale to shut and shutter community schools even though charter school test scores are not better than those of public schools, and studies show that students who leave public schools with vouchers often do worse.
The Network for Public Education Action’s 2020 Candidates Project will make sure that the issue of school privatization is not ignored. We will grade every declared candidate on their positions regarding charter schools, vouchers, and high-stakes testing. We will grade them by how much they take from the billionaires who believe in the privatization of public schools and score each candidate on the company they keep. They can run for office but they can’t hide from all of us and the hard questions we will ask about school privatization.
We need your involvement to get it right. As candidates speak on the issues, these grades may change. If you have links to videos or articles on a candidate’s position on charters, vouchers or high-stakes testing, send them to us by filling out this form.
Go to town halls as the candidates hit the trail. Ask them the questions on privatization that you can find here. Don’t let them off the hook when they pivot or give a fuzzy answer.
We need someone in the White House that understands that our public schools are a public treasure. We need a President who will fight for and improve our community public schools.