Big-name charter school backers donate to key governor races
Prominent charter school supporters are dishing out campaign money, as key gubernatorial races in several states have now begun in earnest.
June primary contests set up a number of state battles for governor in the midterm elections this November, with both Democratic and Republican candidates that could change how public resources flow into charter and private schools in the coming years.
Last week, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs donated $29,200 each — the maximum amount — to Democrat Gavin Newsom’s campaign for California governor. It’s a sign that the potent charter forces in Golden State politics are pivoting toward the state’s lieutenant governor, who is widely considered a shoe-in to beat Republican businessman John Cox.
Many of the billionaire philanthropists who want to reshape America’s struggling school systems believe charters — which are privately run but publicly funded schools — help breed better and different ways to educate students who struggle in traditional public schools, especially poor and minority children. Some also support allowing tax dollars to fund vouchers for families that pick private schools, which don’t have public oversight. Studies are mixed when considering how those programs result in academic gains.
Critics, notably teachers unions, reject both charters and vouchers as drains on the cash-starved schools that educate the vast majority of students. Public school advocates also loathe those programs for eroding the neighborhood schooling model that defines communities.
Newsom has said successful charters would thrive under his leadership, but he would seek to temporarily pause charter school openings to consider transparency issues. The moratorium would be a halting sea-change — if even for a limited time — for California’s robust charter school movement.
Newsom previously said he was disappointed that Hastings, a prolific charter schools supporter in California, gave millions of dollars to one of his primary challengers, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Newsom on the campaign trail has mostly emphasized his support of traditional public schools and called for more charter school accountability.
Jobs, who is the widow of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, also supports charter schools and runs a philanthropic group called the Emerson Collective that focuses on reshaping American school systems, among other social causes.