SLICED BALONEY: CHARTER SCHOOLS AREN'T WHITE ENOUGH

A couple of recent critiques of charter schools have reached  a conclusion that is shocking. I say shocking!

In early 2010, The Civil Rights Project, led by Gary Orfield who is known for his work on school segregation, issued a report last year criticizing charter schools for being more “racially isolated” than traditional public schools. Too many charter schools lack diversity because majority of their students are minority students, it complained.

The conclusion was so silly, I could hardly believe it when I read it. And my feelings were expressed by one Congressional aide who said that the study finds that some charter schools “aren’t white enough.”

In The Charter School Experiment, Evidence, and Implications, edited by  C.A. Lubienski and P.C. Weitzel (Harvard Education Press, 2010). Writing in the first chapter the editor/authors reach the same conclusion.

They point out that “Most data indicate that charter schools are at least as segregated as, if not more segregated than, public schools in their area.”

          Surely it is obvious that the charter schools are mostly in urban districts that serve disproportionate numbers of minority students so they are likely to enroll more minority students. And, voila, minority students fed up with traditional urban schools choose to go to charter schools in hopes of getting a better education.

Fortunately, another author makes that point later in the book.