Delaware Charter Schools: Separate, Unequal
A study conducted by The Western Michigan University Evaluation Center found that Delawares charter school experiment is resulting in a resegregation of schools and the predictable negatives that go along with that separation. Minority schools are under-funded, under-performing and under-staffed. I have always feared that resegregation was the goal of some in the Charter movement in DE. If you put this in the context of Christina’s decision to close city schools you can see that we are really doing a disservice to our largely minority city students.
Tags: Education
Instead of just lashing out at charter schools, we need to consider WHY this is happening. Whether there should be schools set aside for the academically or artistically gifted is a seperate debate from this one in my mind; to imply that schools are resegregating because of the academic rigor of the charter schools is implicitily, though I believe quite accidentily, racist. We need to examine the elementary systems that are producing this “gap” that develops academically more at the middle and secondary levels. We need to work to close the gap and make education a priority among all groups of people. However, we should not fall into the trap of believing that academic rigor in a school is an implicit “whites only” sign. One of the few quotes I like from Bush is when he referred to “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Too often, it is a trap we fall into when dealing with education.
I call bullshit.
That is not at all what I am saying. I am saying that we have created this false impression that the Charter school is the way to solve these problems. Then we find out that the funding of these schools, the teachers hired in these schools and the results obtained by these schools are just like what we would have expected 30 years ago when we had segregated schools.
So the question is whether or not the Charter schools are inherently flawed or just flawed in their implementation. I suspect that the way that charters are conceived may be inherently flawed.
I am not lowering the expectations of separate schools. I am telling you that there is ample evidence that separate is NEVER equal.
Quoting the shrub doesn’t advance your argument either.
Do top performing charter schools (and private schools for that matter) succeed by being “better” or do they simply draw the top students away from other schools?
I suspect the latter and agree with liberalgeek that the charter system seems to be broken.
Again, the debate over the inherent flaws in the charter system is legitimate. My only problem is linking it to “seperate but equal” when there is no direct link to race here, or at least there shouldn’t be. I tend to agree that they pull away the top students from surrouding schools, but we need to be more concerned about WHY these top students tend to be white. Perhaps an affirmative action style program within the current system would be a start – or a bandaid on a bullet wound if you’re completely anti-charter.
I have mixed feelings about charter schools overall; my forray into this debate was merely over concern about the linkage with race that I felt, and continue to feel, should not have been made.
it’s funny to watch you declare Chater’s a “failure” for succeeding.
Didn’t I read an article recently that showed that test scores for students at charter schools were slightly lower than the scores of students in regular public schools? Clearly, you can’t measure a school’s entire success by a lump of test scores but I thought this was interesting.
Steamy –
I think the point was declare them failures for failing AND for resegregating the State.
Don’t worry. I’ll be here to help you out. I understand that some conservatives need a little extra help now.
I understand the home-schooled kids blow away all other types of education (charter, public, private) on the standardized tests.
Like Lisa Simpson said, “Home schooling is not just for whackos anymore.”
Well, if charters succeed in making white kids successful and black kids unsuccessful, I have a problem with it. If it makes rich kids successful and poor kids unsuccessful, I have a problem with it.
I am not making this link. The research is making the link.
Most of you have the wrong idea. Charter schools in Delaware follow the concept of the Neighborhood Schools Act which required districts to develop a system to feed students to the nearest schools. If that law were followed, there would be a change in populations in most public schools in New Castle County.
Charter schools give preference to students within a 5 mile radius. As for the alleged “brain drain”, charter schools have an open application process and lottery system. The true question is ‘are they working?’ – Some are and some are not. Judge each school separately because they are all different.