{"id":11913,"date":"2019-05-18T11:04:46","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T18:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=11913"},"modified":"2019-05-18T11:05:41","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T18:05:41","slug":"citing-harm-to-public-education-bernie-sanders-calls-for-ban-on-for-profit-charter-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2019\/05\/18\/citing-harm-to-public-education-bernie-sanders-calls-for-ban-on-for-profit-charter-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Citing Harm to Public Education, Bernie Sanders Calls for Ban on For-Profit Charter Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

May 17, 2019 by Common Dreams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system.”<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Jake Johnson, staff writer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sen.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Dome event in Columbia, South Carolina on January 21, 2019. (Photo: Sean Rayford\/Getty Images via JTA)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of the official introduction<\/a> of his sweeping education platform in South Carolina this coming weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday became the first 2020 presidential candidate<\/a> to call for a national ban on for-profit charter schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Sanders’s support for banning for-profit charters comes as President Donald Trump’s Department of Education\u2014under the leadership of billionaire Betsy DeVos\u2014is pushing for the expansion of charter schools nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We need more of them, not fewer,” DeVos said<\/a> of the schools during a congressional hearing earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to<\/a> CNN<\/em>\u2014which got an advanced look at Sanders’s plan before its official release<\/a>\u2014the senator’s platform will also include a moratorium on federal funding for all public charter schools until a “national audit on the schools has been completed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNN<\/em> reported that the senator will also propose:<\/p>\n\n\n\n