One of these things is not like the others...

Remember that Sesame Street Segment? Well a trip to People for the American Way's (PFAW to Eduwonk) Public Education web page had that tune playing in my head again. Here are the five headlines that appeared today in their Education News section:

Don't pay kids to flee schools
New Jersey Voucher Lawsuit Is Latest Clint Bolick Cut-and-Paste Job
State Sen. Rod Smith draws momentum from GOP opposition in Democratic bid for governor
D.C. Charter Schools Chief Investigated
Evolution backers seek to influence Ohio elections

Can you guess which of these articles is not like the others? I've included the links to help.

It's the one about federal officials investigating D.C. Board of Education Charter School Office Director Brenda Belton, who is suspected of inappropriately guiding federal grant funds towards educational contractors with whom she had personal connections (the feds are investigating whether she also benefited financially as a result).

Why doesn't this story belong? First, it's not about church-state issues. Three of the other articles PFAW highlights are about vouchers, which PFAW opposes on, among other things, church-state grounds, and the fourth is about the evolution/intelligent design debate which is, again, a church-state issue. More significantly, while the other four stories are about broader policy, legal and political debates, the Belton story is not--its just a case of one person who may or may not have done something wrong. Even if Belton is guilty, this scandal would not be an argument against charter schools in themselves so much as another example of a public official falling prey to temptation (something that's hardly unheard of in traditional school districts), and further evidence that the Board of Education doesn't do a very good job overseeing its charter school operation or some of its employees more generally.

But what really bothers me is seeing charter schools get lumped in with vouchers and opposition to evolution. In both their public accountability and their nonsectarian nature, charter schools are fundamentally different from vouchers, even as they have the potential to offer parents even more choices than vouchers do. And when the charter movement can count folks like the late Eric Rofes, Democratic Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, former Clinton operative Steve Barr, and the National Council of La Raza among its supporters, lumping it in with intelligent design as some kind of conservative religious plot to destroy public education and critical thinking is patently ridiculous. Almost as silly as calling Kevin Carey a "real conservative."*

*I've spent much of the past year sharing office space with Kevin and I can assure you he's no conservative. He worked at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He's more of a feminist than even my boy-hating self. He's still heartbroken over Sleater-Kinney's break-up. He's a vegetarian, for crying out loud!