A “policy playbook” released by the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, suggests the Biden administration should focus on public schools ahead of all else and even curb access to charter and private schools.
Under a section about charter schools, the NEA claims that any “program that diverts resources from the traditional public schools that 90 percent of American students attend by definition undermines the promise of public education.” The organization called on the Biden administration to:
- Oppose all charter school expansion that undermines traditional public schools.
- Bar federal funding to charter schools, charter school authorizers, and charter school management companies not authorized or operated by local school districts.
- Require charter schools, charter school authorizers, and charter school management companies to abide by the same laws and regulations applicable to traditional public schools.
- Oppose the enactment of any new voucher program, including education savings accounts and tuition tax credit schemes, or the expansion of existing programs.
- Repeal the expansion of Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code that permits the use of distributions from education savings plans for qualified elementary and secondary education expenses.
- Limit use of Coverdell Education Savings Accounts to qualified higher education expenses.
- Discontinue funding of the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act. This voucher program authorizes the diversion of $20 million annually to private schools in the District of Columbia; it also offers taxpayers no accountability for the use of the funds and has consistently failed to demonstrate academic effectiveness.
- Prohibit the disbursement of federal funds to organizations or providers that discriminate on the basis of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, national origin, or immigration status.