Clinton Views on Charter Schools, Teacher Evaluations Upset Some Democrats Some donors are balking, worried that her recent comments toe the line of teacher unions By Laura Meckler
http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-views-on-charter-schools-teacher-evaluations-upset-some-democrats-1450398690
WASHINGTON—Democrats backing the effort to overhaul American education have become increasingly concerned that presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton isn’t committed to their cause, and some donors are holding back support for her campaign.
Their worries stem from skeptical comments she has made about charter schools and teacher evaluations, as well as her close relationship with teachers’ unions, who are critical of both.
“There are a lot of deep-pocketed donors who are concerned, and they’re going to hang onto their checkbooks until there is more clarity,” said Whitney Tilson, managing partner of Kase Capital, who has given more than $150,000 to Democrats in recent years. He hasn’t donated any money to Mrs. Clinton or the super PAC supporting her this year “primarily because of this issue.”
Another major Democratic donor, Eli Broad, refused requests for contributions from another friendly super PAC, and only changed his mind after personal reassurances from former President Bill Clinton and campaign chairman John Podesta that Mrs. Clinton will support charter schools.
The concerns lay bare Mrs. Clinton’s challenge in managing competing interests inside the Democratic Party. Among them are teachers, many of whom see themselves as scapegoats for society’s problems, and those pushing more accountability and expanded use of charter schools, including many donors.
The threat of withholding contributions carries consequences. Republicans will spare no expense next fall when they coalesce behind a nominee and seek to defeat the Democratic nominee.
Democrats backing an education overhaul have long viewed Mrs. Clinton as an ally and point to her decades of support for rigorous teacher evaluations and charter schools. They hoped that if elected president, she would continue policies of the Obama administration, which tied grants and waivers from onerous federal rules to states’ support for charter schools and willingness to link student test scores and teacher pay.
Still, change is coming to federal education policy no matter who is elected. President Barack Obama recently signed into law a rewrite of national elementary and secondary education regulations that severely limits the federal role in shaping education policy.
To put pressure on Mrs. Clinton, the advocacy group Democrats for Education Reform last spring posted an 18-page collection of her quotes and past positions online, hoping she would stick with them.
Mrs. Clinton hasn’t put out any formal policy on elementary and secondary education, though she often talks about the importance of preschool and has a detailed proposal for college affordability. That’s left observers to guess her views.
She has met repeatedly with teachers unions, won early endorsements from both the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, and has a close relationship with AFT President Randi Weingarten.
Then last month, she appeared to disparage charter schools, which are public schools operating outside of the traditional system. “Most charter schools—I don’t want to say every one—but most charter schools, they don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them,” she said in an interview with TV host Roland Martin at a town-hall meeting in South Carolina.
Charles Barone, policy director for Democrats for Education Reform, labeled those comments “erroneous” and “unnecessarily divisive.”
Days later, Mrs. Clinton spoke at a union round table and expressed opposition to using student test scores as a way to evaluate teachers. “I have for a very long time also been against the idea that you tie teacher evaluation and even teacher pay to test outcomes,” she said. “There’s no evidence. There’s no evidence.”
The campaign is working to reassure people that she hasn’t abandoned many years of support for charter schools and other changes to education.
Policy aide Ann O’Leary posted an essay on medium.com assuring that “yes, Hillary Clinton supports charter schools,” as long as they are high quality. Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon added that Mrs. Clinton supports federal funding to expand “high-quality charter schools.” But he said she doesn’t think the federal government should require school districts to tie teacher pay to student test scores.
Mr. Broad, who runs a foundation focused on education and has donated more than $2 million to Democrats in the last quarter century, said he rejected a request to contribute to the pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record, saying he needed reassurances about her views on education.
He said he was reassured after conversations with Messrs. Clinton and Podesta that Mrs. Clinton would in fact support charter schools, and he said he believes she will support teacher-accountability measures. He said he now expects to financially support her campaign.
“I think when push gets to shove, she’ll be more like Bill Clinton and perhaps [Obama Education Secretary] Arne Duncan than we think right now,” he said.
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