The ACLU: Complaint Says Charter Schools Are Resegregating Public Education

[QED]

Schools, Race And Integration: Complaint Says Charter Schools Are Resegregating Public Education

Charter schools are often promoted as a tool to address educational inequities, but a potential precedent-setting legal case launched this week says the opposite. In filings with the U.S. Department of Education, two Delaware nonprofit groups allege that some of the state's publicly funded, privately managed schools are actively resegregating the education system -- and in a way that violates federal civil rights law.

The complaint, by the Delaware branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Community Legal Aid Society, cites data showing that more than three-quarters of Delaware's charter schools are "racially identifiable" -- a term that describes schools whose demographics are substantially different from the surrounding community. According to the complaint, "High-performing charter schools are almost entirely racially identifiable as white" while "low-income students and students with disabilities are disproportionately relegated to failing charter schools and charter schools that are racially identifiable as African-American or Hispanic."

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In 2010, for example, a University of Colorado report analyzing charter schools from across the country found that "as compared with the public school district in which the charter school resided, the charter schools were substantially more segregated by race, wealth, disabling condition and language." Similarly, in reviewing a decade worth of research about charter schools, George Washington University education researcher Iris Rotberg earlier this year concluded that "charter schools often lead to increased school segregation ... and lead to the stratification of students who were previously in integrated environments."

More:

http://www.ibtimes.com/schools-race-integration-complaint-says-charter-schools-are-resegregating-public-1736791?utm_content=bufferaade9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[merrily]

1. I ain't saying the ACLU is perfect 1000 out of 1000 times. I am saying I sure do agree with the

ACLU a lot and appreciate the hell out of the ACLU most often fighting for what I believe in. It's one of the few political organizations I still have on my credit card for a monthly donation, another notable being Amnesty International. (If I had more money, I'd make it a larger donation, even though I do disagree on occasion.) I hope more and more people support those organizations.

Meanwhile, about segregated education:

Segregated private education sucks.

Segregated public education sucks even worse.

Segregated education on public money for private profit?

[annabanana]

3. "No one could have expected. . . . "

How could this result not have been foreseen?

[Orrex]

11. I agree. And...

I don't know how it could be claimed that segregation wasn't the intent all along.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Mission accomplished.

None of this stuff is really that hard to see through.

But if you can talk everyone into looking the other way...

[Enthusiast]

10. Precisely.

[Trillo]

5. I don't want a dime of taxpayer money going to private schools.

And that means the lying "public"-private Charter schools.

[jwirr]

6. That has been happening all over the south for years. Charter, private and parochial schools have

led the way. We need a law that addresses this. Our tax money should not be going to any of these schools.

[QED]

7. Agreed.

I don't like the idea of my tax money going to teach religion in schools. Any religion.

And the charters need to be held to the same level of accountability in terms of student performance and financial transparency. The sweetheart deals are bleeding all schools of meaningful revenues.

[cstanleytech]

13. Now there we agree.

If a private school wants to teach religion thats fine but they shouldnt get a dime of taxpayer money.

[RufusTFirefly]

8. What???

Never saw this one coming.

Not.

[QED]

9. Well gawwww-leeeee

There's segregation going on!

[cstanleytech]

12. To be honest I could care less if the schools are all white or all black

all I care about if that the schools are being given equal resources in order to teach the students.

[Starry Messenger]

15. Well, I think that's what Brown vs. Board of Education showed.

Segregation leads to unequal division of resources, hence we need to prevent it.

[cstanleytech]

17. I agree it can lead to that but you shouldnt need desegregation to fix it

or atleast you shouldnt in most cases.

[Starry Messenger]

18. Sadly, we don't live in the kind of world where that is possible.

The Supreme Court was pretty clear.

[cstanleytech]

19. Ya but alot of things have changed since then. Mind you

I am not saying its not needed at all just that I think for the most part as long as we keep an eye on it and make sure every public school is provided equal resources there shouldnt be a need for it as much now.

[Starry Messenger]

20. Changed like what?

[cstanleytech]

21. Well the main one is the internet itself.

It didnt exist back then but now it lets us communicate pretty fast so that if a school is getting shafted and not treated equally parents of the students can use the internet to contact varies government agencies to report it.

[Starry Messenger]

14. Will they actually go after this injustice instead of attacking teachers unions in the courts?

#notafan

[annabanana]

16. Only us and the ACLU, apparently.. . . .n/t