By Ryan Quinn, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s state charter school approval board has hired its first employee: an executive director who has advocated using the “culture war” over issues like critical race theory to promote “school choice.”
Charter school, private school and home-school advocates often use phrases like school choice, “education reform” and “educational freedom” to describe charters and non-public school vouchers. Critical race theory is generally a way of analyzing society, history and racism’s role in them. Conservatives use the term broadly. West Virginia Republicans provided weak examples of it being taught in local public schools when they tried, and failed, to pass legislation this year addressing it.
Charter schools are publicly funded institutions that are nonetheless freed from many state personnel laws and other public school rules. They can be entirely overseen by unelected boards and private management companies…
