An Overton Window is a metaphor for what is politically feasible at any given moment. It’s named for the late Joseph P. Overton of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, who theorized that political ideas at any given moment fall along a line from unthinkable and radical to popular and policy. Ideas that were once politically radioactive can become feasible, desirable, and enacted as the window moves between poles, expands, or contracts. But the window is not static. The nineteenth century temperance movement begat Prohibition, which failed; banning alcohol is no longer politically feasible. Some form of legalized marijuana use is the law in more than half of U.S. states. A generation ago, that was well outside the moving Overton Window.
Education policy ideas run the gamut from maximum government control and oversight, to a free and unfettered education marketplace. Compulsory education exclusively in government-run schools (with private schools and homeschooling banned) would represent one currently unthinkable end of the spectrum; closing all those schools and privatizing education would be the other equally unthinkable end. Formerly radical ideas like charter schools, national standards, and abolishing teacher tenure would be in between these two poles and, depending on which way the political winds are blowing, drift into and out of the “Overton Window.”
The election of Donald Trump, his selection of Betsy DeVos, and the GOP’s domination of statehouses, herald a sudden and dramatic shift in what is politically possible on school choice. If Hillary Clinton won the election and named Randi Weingarten education secretary we would have read a hundred pieces by now on “the death of education reform.” If you’re inclined toward school choice and parental prerogative, not “what the system thinks is best for kids,” as DeVos put it in her opening statement, the view through the Overton window is sunny and seventy-five degrees. So why do so many reformers see only cold and rain?
Last week, the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association (MCPSA) issued a bizarre open letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren “expressing concerns” over DeVos’s support “for school vouchers and her critical role in creating a charter system in her home state of Michigan that has been widely criticized (mostly unfairly) for lax oversight and poor academic performance.” Recall that on the same day that Trump won the White House, Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative to authorize a major expansion of charter schools. Among those leading the opposition to raising the charter cap: Senator Warren, to whom Massachusetts charters now turn for protection from the woman would be, by a considerable margin, the most pro-choice and pro-charter Ed Secretary ever.
Equally curious is the anti-DeVos campaign of the formerly pro-reform Center for American Progress, which frets that Trump’s choice sends “a troubling signal about his plans to privatize education from cradle to career.” Last week, CAP’s official Twitter account unleashed a torrent of abuse at DeVos, some of it personal, and joined with both major teacher unions in opposing her nomination, as did Democrats for Education Reform, which previously called for no Democrat to accept an appointment to serve as Secretary of Education under Trump.
Other reform advocates fret that Trump’s support damages the school choice “brand.” Robin Lake, the director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington worries about “feed[ing] a narrative that choice is about privatization and conservative values.” Writing in Education Post, Peter Cunningham expressed reservations about DeVos’s devotion to accountability, a point emphasized by the Massachusetts charter school group. “Today, in a school system that is increasingly Black, Brown, poor and non-English speaking, and where more than 1 in 7 students has some kind of disability, the need for accountability has never been greater, while the conditions for retreat have never been more likely,” Cunningham wrote.
Politics notwithstanding, there are well-intended reasons to want accountability guardrails to remain strong and in place. The desire to shut down the worst schools, for example, sounds like a benign, common sense argument—no one wants to protect bad schools—but it elides the effects of muscular, test-driven accountability on the habits and practices of all schools—a key component of anti-reform sentiment where it exists and grows. There’s also intriguing evidence to suggest that, when given the opportunity, parents are much quicker to force low-performing schools out of business than regulators.
My own best guess is that test-driven accountability—using tests to shame and close low-performing schools especially—is drifting toward the edge of the Overton window and at risk of broadly falling out of political favor in some states and localities, if it hasn’t already. There is a two-fold danger for reformers: digging in our heels on punitive accountability measures could be alienating to parents who are demanding change and growing impatient with standard ed reform solutions; and windows don’t stay open forever. If you favor increased opportunity for more families now, this seems a propitious moment to advance that agenda. There is more to accountability that test scores. Economist Tyler Cowen reminds us not to forget “the single most overwhelming (yet neglected) empirical fact about vouchers: they improve parent satisfaction.” And happy parents—particularly politically active middle class parents—can keep the Overton window open for a very long time, regardless of who is in the White House.
When the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window. The test-driven accountability door may be closing. But the Overton Window is now wide open, at least in the two-thirds of states where the Republican party control is uncontested, for charters, education savings accounts, tax credits, vouchers, and the full range of parent-empowering options for education and school finance. Perhaps we should take full advantage of it. It won’t stay open forever.
