Charter schools in governors’ sights

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was not on the ballot in the Michigan governor’s race, but her legacy loomed over the campaign in her home state, which has the country’s highest concentration of for-profit charter schools.

Republican Bill Schuette, a DeVos ally and the state’s attorney general, ultimately lost to Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who pledged on the campaign trail to “put an end to the DeVos agenda.” She has promised to stop new forprofit schools from opening and to demand more accountability from charter schools.

Michigan was one of several key states that elected new governors who are more skeptical of charter schools than their election opponents, and will replace leaders who openly supported the sector that enrolls roughly 3 million students across the U.S. in schools that are publicly funded but privately run.

The states that saw such reversals — including California, Illinois and Michigan — are home to some of the strongest charter school enrollment numbers, and the outcomes suggest the political landscape could be growing more difficult for future expansion, particularly under Democratic leadership. The winners pledged support for traditional public schools while campaigning in the shadow of a teacher protest movement that forced a national conversation about the state of public education.

As Democrats flipped seven governor seats to bolster their numbers to 23 across the country, the incoming governors in California, Illinois and New Mexico have all said they want to take the rare step of putting a temporary halt on new charter schools. New governors in Connecticut, Kansas, Maine and Nevada also are expressing less enthusiasm for charters than their predecessors.

Jon Valant, an education policy expert at the Brookings Institution think tank, said certain Democrats see opposing school choice initiatives as a way to resist DeVos and President Donald Trump. While existing charter schools won’t be touched, Valant said he expects overall growth to stall and for-profit schools to be in peril.