Entries tagged 'Gates Foundation'

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

Obama Smartly Supports Charter Schools

While I’ve been generally unimpressed with all of the major presidential candidates’ (lack of) attention to the issue of education in the primaries, I was happy to see this recent interview with Sen. Barack Obama, in which he said he thinks the federal government should consider funding charter schools in some way.

“I’ve consistently said I think we need to support charter schools,” Obama said. “I think it’s important for us to experiment in terms of how teachers are compensated — working with teachers but looking at how we can reward excellence in classrooms.”

Charter schools are an interesting issue for candidates, as teachers’ unions generally oppose them, saying they take money from district schools. While there’s some merit to that argument, having worked at a KIPP school in Houston, I think charter schools do a ton with very few resources, and deserve some credit for that work.

National education foundations, like Gates and Broad, are finally starting to take notice in a big way. I’m proud to support a candidate who has the guts to take a principled stand and support excellent education for all children.

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