Bernie Sanders to Call For Ban On Charter Schools

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is set to call for a ban on for-profit charter schools in an education policy speech in South Carolina Saturday.

This would make Sanders the first 2020 presidential candidate to suggest such a policy, according to CNN. Sanders will argue that the increase in charter schools have taken money away from public schools and have disadvantaged the black community.

“Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system,” Sanders tweeted Friday. “When we are in the White House we will ban for-profit charter schools.”

Sanders’s charter school solutions include requiring charters to comply with the same oversight regulations for public schools, supporting unionization for charter school teachers and placing caps on CEO salaries, CNN reported.

“As president I will stand with groups like the @NAACP and put a moratorium on federal funding of new charter schools until rules are in place to make sure they are operating with transparency and accountability,” Sanders said in another tweet Friday.

Sanders’s stance on charter schools goes against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s stance. She said those against school choice have “chilled creativity,” CNN reported.

Sanders’s team did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.