Melissa Sanchez of Catalyst Chicago reports that the Walton Family Foundation will no longer fund charter schools in Chicago due to its unfavorable political climate. This is a great victory for the parents and educators of Chicago! The climate is unwelcoming to charters because the public is resisting, understanding that charter expansion means public school death.

Hallelujah! Resistance works! Jitu Brown, Katen Lewis, and other community leaders deserve congratulations.

Sanchez writes that Chicago used to at the top of Walton’s list for new charter money. No more:

“Just a few years ago, Walton spent more money to help start charters here than anywhere else in the nation. In large part, the money flowed in because of the presence of a powerful pro-charter mayor who controlled the city’s school system.

“We’re very confident in the city’s leadership, particularly the mayor, to help expand and strengthen the charter sector in Chicago,” the foundation’s then-deputy director of education reform said in 2013.

“But now, a deep and seemingly intractable financial crisis, an unprecedented wave of public backlash against privately run charters and the district’s own slowdown of charter expansion have made Walton shift its course.

“The foundation—which says it has given start-up funds to one of every four charter schools nationwide—is pulling out of Chicago. Between 2009 and 2014, Walton gave nearly $7 million in direct grants to charters in Chicago, including the UNO Network of Charter Schools and Urban Prep Academies, among others, according to tax records. (Another $8 million was targeted to fund state policy and advocacy work, and to start charters elsewhere in Illinois.)

“We take no pleasure in this,” says Marc Sternberg, Walton’s director of K-12 education programs. “When you look at the Nobles and the Perspectives and KIPPs in Chicago and the impact they’re having, and when you look at their aggregate performance, Chicago does very well. It is unfortunate that there aren’t opportunities to help [organizations] like them grow their impact, especially when the need in Chicago is so acute.”

“Walton’s withdrawal is just one of the signs that Chicago’s once-rapidly expanding charter sector is facing a harder sell in an increasingly hostile political climate.”

Walton identified 13 other districts that it will target to destroy traditional public schools. These include Los Angeles, New York City, Oakland, Memphis, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Denver, Camden, Washington, DC; Atlanta, Memphis, Houston, and San Antonio. New Orleans is already nearly 100% charter, but Walton won’t rest until every last public school is replaced by a privately managed charter school.

Walton no longer has Newark on its priority funding list. Another “hostile political climate.”

Parents, educators, and citizens in the 13 districts: You are forewarned! Walton is coming to eliminate your local public schools and replace them with corporate chain schools. If you fight back, you too can create a “hostile political climate” and send the billionaires packing!