Alternet -From New York to California, new candidates ran and won on platforms opposed to privatization, big-money backers of charter schools suffered humiliating losses, and voters trounced efforts to expand voucher programs that drain public schools of the funding they need.
This spring’s teacher walkouts that made news across the country can take some credit for propelling the anti-privatization message to voters and prompting educators to take their support for public schools to the ballot box. But opposition to the privatization industry was also strong in states that did not experience teacher walkouts, and public education advocates are vowing to take their cause to state capitals and Congress to curb the flow of public money to unaccountable, privately operated education providers.
One of the biggest defeats for the school privatization industry was in California where former charter school executive Marshall Tuck went down to his opponent, little-known Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, in the race for state superintendent of education.
Tuck got $36 million from charter industry advocates—including $11 million combined from real estate developer Bill Bloomfield, Gap co-founder Doris Fisher, and venture capitalist Arthur Rock—but still lost.
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