In a recent report from the UCLA Civil Rights Project titled "Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards," researchers assert that charter schools have been "a major political success, but it has been a civil rights failure." This is a damning assertion, and meant to be. As we read, we find that the real issue is segregation, not civil rights in any general sense.
The study cites Brown v. Board of Education in a way that suggests that charter schools are part of the same tradition, when, in fact, it's often minority groups that are self-selecting into charter schools. Joanne Jacobs asks "Are Charter Schools too black?" She asks, "Should black students be denied a charter alternative unless enough whites want to attend the same inner-city school?" In fact, some charter schools very clearly design themselves to serve segregated minority populations and are run by leaders of those same minority groups. What does this mean for Colorado?
For example, in Colorado, we have Ricardo Flores Magon Academy--a school named after a Mexican revolutionary. The school naturally attracts students of Mexican descent, but by naming the school after a Mexican revolutionary it also will tend to attract more students of Mexican descent. Most of the highly qualified staff (and knowing some staff members personally, I can attest to that) is of Mexican descent. This staff doesn't make apologies for being largely segregated. They believe there is power in this for their students.
Other urban charter schools in Colorado have high minority populations and socio-economically similar populations. Does this report really suggest that minority parents should not have the right to choose these schools for their kids if there aren't enough white students in the schools? If so, the urban landscape of charter schools in Colorado might have to change.
The other interesting question is what would make up a desegregated charter school? What would be the criteria? Would appropriate diversity be based on local schools and if so how close would the ratio of non-white to white students need to be to local schools? What if the charter schools became more diverse and was educating too many white children? This whole notion seems to defy that concept of parental choice. Wouldn't a minority parent know if his or her child's school wasn't diverse enough and then put the child back into the traditional public school?
Democrats for Education Reform made an interesting observation. You can choose your priorities. You can dictate that a charter school's highest goal is performing high-quality education or you can dictate that charter schools have desegregated populations. You can't have two highest priorities. If you choose to serve kids with a high quality education, the school may integrate naturally over time. If you choose to desegregate, it's unlikely that you'll develop a high quality education over time. Which would you choose?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For those of your interested in reading more see:
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools' response that says, "For a group with Harvard and UCLA pedigrees, it’s a remarkably shoddy job."
Comments