Preston C. Green III, Bruce Baker and Joseph Oluwole’s article, entitled “Having It Both Ways: How Charter Schools Try to Obtain Funding of Public Schools and the Autonomy of Private Schools,” explains how charters use “their hybrid characteristics to obtain the benefits of public funding while circumventing state and federal rights and protections for employees and students that apply to traditional public schools.”

Casey Cobb said research overwhelmingly shows that wide-open school choice models like those in Florida and Milwaukee that use vouchers to allow parents to choose which school their children attend haven’t demonstrated improved outcomes.

“While constructs of equity and adequacy are realities we face everyday,” Nathan Quesnel responded, “I am disappointed and puzzled by the characterization of East Hartford Public Schools and teachers made by Secretary DeVos.”

“In one sense it makes sense to me politically that the small-government arm of the Republican party would be focused on reducing overall federal expenditures, especially in places like education that are supposed to be reserved for the state,” said Shaun Dougherty, a CTE researcher and education-policy professor at the University of Connecticut who authored the Fordham Institute report.