National Education Association comes out against private charter schools

Substance News - One of the most important resolutions approved at the annual Representative Assembly of the National Education Association brings the organization, the larger of the nation's two teacher unions, out against the further expansion of charter schools:

As educators we believe that “public education is the cornerstone of our social, economic, and political structure,” The growth of separate and unequal systems of charter schools that are not subject to the same basic safeguards and standards that apply to public schools threatens our students and our public education system. The purpose of this policy statement is to make plain NEA’s opposition to the failed experiment of largely unaccountable privately managed charter schools while clarifying NEA’s continued support for those public charter schools that are authorized and held accountable by local democratically elected school boards or their equivalent.