Warren K-12 Plan Would End Federal Funds for Charter Schools

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren would quadruple Title I funding for poor students and eliminate federal funding for charter schools under a new education plan she unveiled Monday.

The proposal would send $450 billion to states over the course of a decade through a new formula that would favor states that increase their own funding for public schools and states that prioritize spending on districts and schools that serve the most poor students. At the same time, Warren would end the $340 million federal Charter Schools Program, which supports the startup of new charter schools and the replication and expansion of already existing high-quality charter schools.

In doing so, she becomes just the latest candidate to pitch a major funding increase for Title I, the biggest federal education program, as well as the candidate who's taken the hardest stance against charter schools so far this primary season.

"To keep our traditional public school systems strong, we must resist efforts to divert public funds out of traditional public schools," she wrote. "Efforts to expand the footprint of charter schools, often without even ensuring that charters are subject to the same transparency requirements and safeguards as traditional public schools, strain the resources of school districts and leave students behind, primarily students of color."

Charter schools represent a flash point in Democratic politics, largely due to their being part of the broad school choice tent, which also includes private school choice programs – things like tax credit scholarships and vouchers – that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has long championed. While many Democrats have supported charter schools in the past, including Warren, they're hesitant to be tied in any was to DeVos and their eagerness to hold the sector at arm's length comes as educators across the country are walking the picket lines, in part, to stem the creep of the charter sector.

Warren's additional big funding commitments include $20 billion for students with disabilities, $100 billion in so-called "excellence grants" for schools to invest in programs and resources they think are the most important for their students and $50 billion in infrastructure spending.

The plan also promises to fix school segregation, which Warren proposes to do by incentivizing housing policies that eliminate strict zoning laws, bolstering the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, re-establishing Obama-era guidelines that put school districts that disproportionately discipline students of color on notice and establish oversight processes for communities that try to break apart from their school district to form their own.

Warren's proposal wades into the contentious debate over standardized testing, which is required under the federal K-12 law in order to track student achievement, which states often also use when making decisions about low-performing schools and teacher evaluations. Warren said she'd push to prohibit the use of standardized testing as a primary or significant factor in closing a school, firing a teacher or making any other high-stakes decisions. Instead, she said she'd encourage schools to use assessments that allow students to demonstrate learning in multiple ways.

The sweeping policy plan would also invest in teachers, diversify the teaching workforce, focus federal spending on social and emotional learning and put more support staff, like nurses and social workers, in schools.

Until now, Warren has focused mainly on her higher education proposal, which would offer tuition for four-year public colleges and erase student loan debt for most borrowers.

The two national teachers unions, both of which are in the process of vetting candidates as part of their endorsement process, cheered Warren's proposal.

"It's a stark reversal of years of austerity and failed quick-fix reforms that have defunded public schools, hollowed out the teaching force, prioritized testing over learning, and failed to meet the needs of our children and the promise of public education," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement.

"Warren's plan is rooted in respect for our nation's educators, and recognizes that those who know the names of the kids in their classrooms should be making education decisions," Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement.

The K-12 plan would be paid for by establishing a two-cent wealth tax on fortunes above $50 million.