By Kevin P. Chavous, DFER Chair Emeritus
Bill and Hillary Clinton are fond of saying that elections are about the future. Yet even before she officially entered the 2016 presidential contest, Hillary Clinton found herself preemptively branded by her opponents as a candidate of the past. Now that she has formally announced a second run for the White House, she faces the challenge of showing the American people a truly forward-looking agenda.
To accomplish this, Clinton needs to take bold action – and she need not look far for guidance. In 1994, it was Bill Clinton who took the traditionally Republican issue of welfare reform and made it his own, eventually ushering in one of the greatest successes of his presidency. Similarly, Hillary Clinton has an opportunity to take another bold, unexpected step that would startle her Republican critics and demonstrate her independence from old party dogma: embracing school choice.
The 2014 midterms saw a significant shift in African-American and Hispanic voting patterns. Nationally, Republicans picked up eight points among blacks and made double-digit gains with Latinos. These traditionally left-leaning blocs moved away from the Democratic Party. This underperformance among minorities, arguably, helped cost Democrats elections they were once favored to win.
What is behind the growing dissatisfaction with the national Democratic Party among minorities? One explanation is that Democrats are not offering any new solutions to a problem that many minority voters – particularly in the black community – care deeply about: fixing our failing schools. An EducationNext poll last August, sponsored by Stanford University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, found that 47 percent of African-Americans were in favor of charter schools while just 29 percent were opposed.
It is not difficult to understand the demand for substantive education reform. African-American and Hispanic students consistently lag behind white students in both reading and math skills across several age groups. Recent assessments show black students are performing the worst across the board.
Our schools are not just failing young Americans of color today, they’ve been failing them for decades. Multiple generations of minorities have seen these patterns affect themselves and their families, and they are showing their frustration at the ballot box.
For the sake of future generations, we have to change the conversation about how we educate our children. Parental choice in education does not have to be a “zero sum game” between public and private schools. To begin with, the conversation must be expanded. Everyone should have a seat at the table. Education reform requires an “all of the above” approach. We can improve public schools while also giving parents the option to educate their children at a charter school or offering other local forms of assistance.
Instead of seeking collaboration among all stakeholders, Democrats’ education policy has long paid disproportionate attention to one group: teachers unions, which oppose most reform efforts almost reflexively. Not only is this approach ineffective, it is no longer politically sound – teachers unions poured $80 million into the midterm elections, but their candidates could not win. Prominent Republicans in the 2016 race already have demonstrated a commitment to discussing these issues and some, such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, have built credible education reform records that underscore their positions. If Democrats do not offer more inclusive education policy proposals in 2016 beyond blind support for the unions, they will only be hindering themselves and giving the Republicans a crucial opening with minority voters who long have felt ignored or neglected.
But this is an opportunity for Hillary Clinton, too. She could take advantage of this moment and start this much-needed conversation with a truly groundbreaking, innovative stance that would clearly define her as a candidate of the future. Chris Matthews suggested on MSNBC that though Clinton could present herself as a “modern person” by supporting education reform, she might be reluctant to buck the powerful unions in practice. But maybe not. Indeed, in her own video announcing her presidential candidacy, she highlighted a mother forced to move out of her neighborhood in order to give her child a quality education.
If anyone has the credibility to move her party on the issue of school choice, it’s Clinton. She was a protege of Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman early in her career. As first lady of Arkansas, she made education issues a priority, even taking on the state teachers’ union over educator assessments. She maintained this commitment as a U.S. senator and secretary of state, and has remained vocal right up to this month, when she touted a Clinton Foundation early childhood education program in New York City.
Clinton has the record and the political capital to stake out her own position on education reform. Doing so would go a long way toward silencing the critics who say she’s a candidate of “old ideas.” It would solidify her support in minority communities, and show that she puts her commitment to the future of all Americans over and above any party ideology.
Kevin P. Chavous is executive counsel and a founding board member for the American Federation for Children. He is a former member of the council of the District of Columbia and a former chairman of D.C.’s Education Committee, as well as chair emeritus of the Democrats for Education Reform and a former chair of the Black Alliance for Educational Options.
Read the Full Story at U.S. News & World Report: http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/05/15/hillary-clinton-should-campaign-on-school-choice