New rules proposed by the Education Department to govern a federal grant program for charter schools are drawing bipartisan backlash and angering parents, who say the Biden administration is seeking to stymie schools that have fallen out of favor with many Democrats but maintain strong support among Black and Latino families.

A former Department of Education official said a proposed regulation restricting federal funding for public charter schools could force a number of schools to close their doors.

On March 11, the Biden administration's Department of Education announced a new regulatory proposal regarding the use of federal funds for public charter schools that places significant restrictions on the disbursement of funding to the schools while also mandating new demographic reporting requirements.

The largest teachers’ union’s latest recommendation would functionally prohibit many charter schools, hurting students of color especially.

In its latest policy platform, the National Education Association (NEA), the largest union that represents my profession, has once again made clear that it cares more about institutions than about families and students. The platform’s opening paragraphs set out the NEA’s ostensible purpose: to do what’s best for students and shrink racial inequities. In reality, its policies would accomplish the opposite.

Coronavirus public K-12 school safety lockdowns and reopening uncertainties have driven millions of American families to think very seriously about home-schooling, private schooling and charter school alternatives that are facing opposition from powerful teacher union lobbies and compliant Democratic advocates.

Many, perhaps millions, of other current home-schooling and alternative program families are realizing that in many cases they, or their hired teachers, are doing a better job of educating their children than they experience with accessible public offerings.

Four charter schools, including one in Huntington Beach and another with a campus in San Bernardino, are suing the California Department of Education and state leaders over a funding formula they say cuts them off from essential state money.

Charter schools are schools that are publicly funded but operated by independent groups. (The name comes from the contract, or "charter," that a group gets to operate a school.)

The successful teacher strikes of 2018-2019 led to limits on charter school expansion and put charters on the defensive. Now economist Thomas Sowell is leading the counterattack.

It is National School Choice Week, a week dedicated to highlighting the power of choice in education, including public and private school choice. All week, we at Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom will be highlighting how choice contributes to social harmony.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to the most difficult semester in generations on college campuses across the United States. With that semester now wrapping up, public colleges and universities are facing costs that already dwarf the $7.6 billion in federal stimulus funds that are on their way to these institutions.1 Absent dramatic new action from Congress, many of the public colleges that support social mobility will confront an existential threat.

Education in the United States is provided in public, private, and home schools. State governments set overall educational standards, often mandate standardized tests for K–12 public school systems and supervise, usually through a board of regents, state colleges, and universities.