In January, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor threatened to hold hearings if newly elected New York
City Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to stymie public charter schools. As it turns out, Bill de Blasio has arguably
done more to help public charters in three months than Cantor has done the entire 13 years he’s been
in Congress. Only three Republicans – none of whom was Eric Cantor – joined the 20 Democrats who
signed a letter to House Appropriators last week in support of what would be the first Charter School
Program funding increase in five years.The upending of conventional wisdom that Democrats are politically
constrained from promoting school reform and that Republicans are the ones pushing for big change goes
beyond the de Blasio/Cantor match-up.
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