Dive Summary:
- From closures of low-performing schools to private school vouchers and shifts of public funding to charter schools, a new poll released Monday by the American Federation of Teachers shows public school parents' displeasure with recent education policy changes.
- The results included: 61% of parents opposed to closing low-performing schools and reassigning students elsewhere, 58% against longer school days, 56% against private school vouchers and close to 66% satisfied by their children's schools.
- A Monday speech by AFT President Randi Weingarten at the union's annual meeting in Washington will draw further attention to the poll's findings.
From the article:
... In the speech, Weingarten will call for a reinvestment in public schools and say that education reform hasn’t worked and isn’t what parents want. “Decades of top-down edicts, mass school closures, privatization and test fixation with sanctions, instead of support, haven’t moved the needle — not in the right direction, at least,” Weingarten says in remarks from the speech provided to The Washington Post. “You’ve heard their refrain: competition, closings, choice. Underlying that is a belief that disruption is good and stability is bad.” ...