Sen. Booker flip flops on school choice, votes with party to uphold Biden restrictions on charter schools

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., appeared to flip-flop on the issue of school choice when he voted with his party on Wednesday to uphold restrictions on charter schools. 

In a 49-49 vote along party lines, the Senate voted down a resolution that would have invoked the Congressional Review Act in a bid to overturn the Department of Education’s new rules affecting funding for the Charter School Program.

Reacting to the vote, American Federation For Children Senior Fellow Corey DeAngelis told Fox News Digital that “parents need to wake up and hold these politicians accountable.”

“Shame on Cory Booker who had previously been a supporter of school choice. He even spoke at my organization’s school choice summit a decade ago,” DeAngelis said.

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Booker spoke at a school choice event in 2012, claiming to be a proponent of parents having a choice of where there kids get an education. 

“I cannot ever stand up and stand against a parent having options because I benefited from my parents having options,” he said speaking at an American Federation For Children 2012 conference. “All the people representing my city.. [Obama] does not send his kids to DC Public Schools… and now you want to deny that to my community.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Before the vote, the resolution’s sponsor, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., urged his fellow lawmakers to vote for the bill because it was “a vote for common sense.”

“Sixty-eight percent of Democrats, 67% of independents, 68% of African Americans, [and] 72% of Hispanics agree with some form of school choice,” Scott said. “This is simply a public charter school issue… stopping the Biden administration from destroying one of the most important vehicles for human prosperity for the kids of our country.”

Reacting to the vote, Scott sent a statement to Fox News Digital.

“Paying lip service to parents on school choice and then turning around and voting with union bosses against common sense legislation to support high-performing public charter schools is the height of hypocrisy,” the statement read. “Yet, that’s exactly what many of my Democrat colleagues did yesterday. I am disappointed that they’re putting politics over the people who need more education options—kids growing up in poverty just like I did.”

Other Senate Democrats besides Booker, appeared to pull their support of the resolution. Earlier this year, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Michael Bennett, D-Col., blasted the charter school restrictions in a bipartisan letter directed at Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. Booker also signed onto this letter. 

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U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona meets leaders from U.S. colleges and universities to discuss challenges students are facing after the Supreme Court decision to end the nationwide constitutional right to abortion, in the Vice President’s ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, U.S., August 8, 2022.  (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)

Scott introduced the Congressional Review Act resolution opposing the Department of Education’s new rules about how charter schools qualify for federal grants. 

Most of the federal funding for charter schools comes from the bipartisan federal Charter Schools Program which started 28 years ago. 

Despite a 7% uptick in charter school enrollment throughout the 2020-2021 academic year, the rules added hurdles for receiving federal funding through the federal program. Among the new requirements imposed by the Biden administration are requiring applicants to prove a need and community support for the charter school, as well as analyzing the enrollment and diversity of the school, and disclosing contracts the school has with for-profit companies.

(REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool)

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Charter schools across the country serve 3.5 million students, with 69% being minority students, and more than two thirds being low-income, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

A spokesperson from Sen. Booker’s office sent a statement to Fox News Digital:

“Some things never change. Since his days in Newark city hall, people on the right and left have tried to impose their ideology on Cory Booker’s efforts to improve education for kids. And Senator Booker’s guiding principle on education has always been the same: every child in our country should be able go to a great public school so they can achieve their full potential, whether a traditional or a high quality charter school.”

“Senator Booker opposed this resolution because it played politics with our kids’ education and would set back efforts to improve all schools. That’s why Senator Booker took a better approach, pushing back this summer on elements of Department of Education guidelines that could interfere with high-quality charters’ ability to secure important funding. He also worked with a bipartisan group of members to improve the regulations, and the Biden administration listened and made changes.”

Fox News’ Kelsey Koberg contributed to this report

Joshua Q. Nelson is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

Joshua focuses on politics, education policy ranging from the local to the federal level, and the parental uprising in education.

Joining Fox News Digital in 2019, he previously graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Political Science and is an alum of the National Journalism Center and the Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program. 

Story tips can be sent to joshua.nelson@fox.com and Joshua can be followed on Twitter and LinkedIn.