Giving Compass' Take:

• Andrew Pillow, writing for The 74, examines Democrats' position in the charter school debate, emphasizing continued support of school choice within the political party. 

• How will funders' opinions about school choice affect philanthropy aimed at charter networks?

• Read an alternative view: Why school choice does not always offer more opportunities for students. 

The Democratic presidential primary is upon us and it is a crowded field to say the least. There is a wider variety of candidates in this primary than in any other in recent memory. And with a wide variety of candidates comes a wide variety of views. Some of the candidates will almost certainly have those views and opinions used against them. Sen. Cory Booker will be one of those candidates.

Other Democrats would be better off embracing school choice because in less than a decade, that is where the party will be, and in many ways, it’s where the party already is.

Long-standing Democratic support

For all of the Democratic-led backlash and curtailing of charter schools we have seen in recent years in places like New York and Chicago, by and large, Democrats have been supportive of school choice. Both the Clinton and Obama administrations have supported charter schools, and teachers unions were no less opposed to them then than they are now.

School choice is spreading

The number of charter schools has grown nationwide and has even spread to states that hadn’t previously allowed them. Several politicians have recently called for a voucher system in their states.

Charter school alumni 

As charter schools spread by both number and area, the number of people who are positively affected by them increases as well. The estimated number of charter school students for the 2017-18 school year is around 3.2 million.

Minorities are mostly pro-charter 

A poll from Education Next found that only 26 percent of blacks oppose charter schools. That figure was slightly larger for Hispanics, at 33 percent. The opposition figures were even lower for tax-credit scholarships and vouchers. So, what was the largest source of opposition found in the poll? You guessed it, teachers.

Read the full article about school choice by Andrew Pillow at The 74.