CHRISTIAN & CATHOLIC SCHOOLS CAN BECOME TAXPAYER-FUNDED CHARTER SCHOOLS

As conservatives debate among ourselves how to make our message and our agenda as relevant as possible for immigrants and minorities, attention must focus on Charter Schools.

One of the biggest weaknesses that the Far Left has is on Charter Schools v. Public Education in urban areas. Within the past few years, the Democrats, led by their Far Left fringe, have switched sides on Charter Schools. They have begun to come out against them in city after city, and state after state. They are doing this even though their base keeps clamoring for more of them. Public education is deficient in urban areas for many reasons, and that is not the subject of this blog post. In most cases, the parents cannot afford to move to the suburbs, and they want more than anything for their kids to have a better alternative.

For years, I lived directly behind the Robert Treat Academy in Newark, a Charter School open only to Newark residents. I had a commanding view from my 10th floor balcony. Over 95% of the students were Black or Latino, and most were from struggling neighborhoods. On standardized tests, this school outperformed every public school in Newark and all of Essex County, including the affluent heavily White/Asian towns of Millburn and Livingston. This is proof that kids are smart everywhere, and their backgrounds and neighborhoods need not hold them back. Parents from all over Newark fight to get their kids admitted, and the school has no choice but to hold a lottery for the openings. Lottery losers outnumber lottery winners by 10 to 1. Many losing parents come back year after year, hoping and praying that they will finally win. Now here’s the irony. The founder of this school is the Democratic kingpin of Essex County, “Big Steve” Adubato. He’s a very liberal guy, and for a long time it was Far Left who championed Charter Schools all across America. I don’t agree with his politics and especially not with his bossism, but I’ll give him a few points for running a quality school.

Well, the political discussion has changed, and the Far Left has come out strong against Charter Schools, including in Newark. It must be frustrating for Adubato.

This presents a huge dilemma for the Far Left, because they know they would alienate their urban base of concerned parents if the real reasons for their opposition got out. They keep the reasons as secret as possible, but here they are:

(1) Philosophically, Public Education is more in keeping with Socialism

(2) Public Education can be controlled by their socialist agenda in a top-down manner from big government, whereas Charter Schools can teach kids what they want, and can potentially be conservative.

(3) The Unions really prefer to have Public Education.

(4) And here's the big one. Charter schools are fully subsidized by the local taxpayers, and "free", meaning the parents don't pay additionally. Eventually the Faith community will get smart and secure legislation or a Supreme Court Order allowing Christian and Catholic schools to follow the same model and to function as Charter Schools. By doing so, parents wanting their kids to have a religious education will not have to pay for it directly.

Education is the key to the future, and nothing terrifies the Far Left more than the thought of losing control of the process of indoctrinating our children with their ideas of Socialism, gender neutrality, and group identity politics. If parents didn’t have to pay for their kids to attend a Christian or Catholic Charter School, tens of millions would make the switch. Their children would grow up in a Faith-based education environment, breaking the process of Far Left indoctrination. This would secure a real future for our country.

"Equal Protection For All" can be the rallying call. Why should "arts-based" and "science-based" Charter schools be fully subsidized by the taxpayer, but a Christian school is not? There’s already an opening for this, as taxpayers are already required to fund the bussing of students to religious schools. Not sure if this is nationally, or just in my State (New Jersey), but it is definitely the case here.

We conservatives need to come out strong for Charter Schools, especially in urban areas with deficient public schools, so that kids can have a real alternative to the really bad public schools.

This is a huge opening for us to win over urban residents to the conservative side. Charter Schools should be considered a top conservative priority.