I'm most familiar with the situation in Indiana, for example, where Pence is perceived by many educators as having done a lot of damage to public education. I think it would have cost him reelection as Governor, but I'm not sure. Die hard republicans that were educators were all planning to vote Democrat for Governor.
Many of the ideas sound great in theory but the implementation is what really matters for the communities, you know?
Corporations are often allowed to buy failing schools and take them over... but the "buy" part is misleading. There were deals where they paid very little for buildings, etc, that tax payers funded originally. Then they used those resources for profit. That is really shady.
Look at the fail rates of some of the charter schools... in places where they are mismanaged they often fail mid way through the school year and just close up. Then the public schools have to just figure out how to deal with the kids left behind. And the failure rates can be very, very high. So they are not held accountable when it doesn't work out but they get to pull out a profit when it does. I wish my investments worked that way!
Having said that, I am in an area on the east coast where the balance of public schools, magnet schools, charter schools, and private schools seems to be working for most. Our public schools do well and our other schools kind of fill in the gaps where needed. Most people seem very happy, though gifted education is really not very good at all in my district public schools.
My kids are able to attend language immersion magnet schools in our district, which is amazing.
