Thread by @kombiz

Chait is shilling for the charter industry and he's being completely dishonest in going after Elizabeth Warren on Question 2 which lost 62 to 38. Let me break down a few problems.

nymag.com/intelligencer/…

That was despite the pro-charter school coalition outspending the pro-public education coalition by $10 million dollars. It was rejected strongly in black and brown communities in Boston bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/11/…

The reason it was rejected was that research is pretty clear that at certain points charter density starts destroying the fiscal health of the school district. Where the cap was already in Massachusetts was already past the high point of that fiscal impact.

You can read more research about that dynamic here: researchforaction.org/wp-content/upl…

The other thing that was happening in Boston was that there was a real fight for more funding for public schools, a fight for millionaires tax to pay for it to invest to improve public schools.

So there was an effort in the works to change the Massachusetts constitution to get more funding, to divy it up more equitably and to drive at equity. In fact just this month MA finally passed and got a downpayment on that funding - dotnews.com/columns/2019/l…

Though the millionaire's tax was kicked off by opponents who just happened to be some of the same people pushing and helping underwrite charter expansion in Massachusetts. Like Charlie Baker and Seth Klarman.

The other thing that was happening around charter schools in MA in 2015 and 2016 was that you were getting stories about how some schools had very high out of school suspension rates, pushing kids out, that their waitlists numbers were bogus.

So Warren isn't saying go fix your schools, there's a real effort going on to make schools better in MA. To get real funding to invest in a program that works and to do so in an equitable fashion. That's why question 2 was rejected in large numbers by communities of color in MA.

Other people who may have a lot more to add here... @JonathanCohn @BisforBerkshire @Edu_Historian @JessJTang @LauraClawson @TracyNovick @johnflerner

@JonathanCohn @BisforBerkshire @Edu_Historian @JessJTang @LauraClawson @TracyNovick @johnflerner Look for dishonest arguments about Warren and Education to continue. A lot of the people who viscerally hate Warren because of her economic program, the billionaires and wall street, are also the main funders and sit on the boards of ed reform organizations.

It's why they paid the largest fine in MA history to keep their donors hidden.

bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/09/…

It's why in 2012 when California had an initiative for a millionaires tax to fund public schools the many of the NO funders were connected to the charter school movement in CA even though charters would get the money. hedgeclippers.org/hedgepapers-no…