NAACP needs to reset sights on education
Anthony Williams
is a Democratic state senator from Philadelphia who ran for governor this year on a platform that included universal school choice
I was raised to revere the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As a child, I learned of its legendary achievements in fighting against the oppression of the human spirit and removing the barriers of segregation and racial discrimination. The organization's recent involvement in controversies surrounding Shirley Sherrod and the tea party, however, indicates a shift away from its core values. Today, the long-revered civil rights group seems more concerned about public relations, political positioning, and currying interest-group favor than providing a voice to the voiceless. Nowhere is this transformation more evident, or troubling, than in the area of education.
Whenever the NAACP is mentioned, one immediately thinks of Brown v. Board of Education, the historic civil rights case the NAACP argued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. With Brown, the NAACP helped to end legally segregated public schools and overturned the racist policy of "separate but equal." Unfortunately, the mission of the NAACP to protect equal access to quality public education has changed. At least it seemed that way to me as I read the Wall Street Journal article "Failing Schools Can Stay Open" on July 1, which described the NAACP's lawsuit to force New York City to keep open 19 failing public schools.
As a Pennsylvania state senator representing a district with failing schools, I have seen thousands of children deprived of a quality education. Only 10 percent of the children who enter Philadelphia's ninth grade go on to graduate college. In this country an African American male who drops out of high school is more likely than not to
Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20100801_NAACP_needs_to_reset_sights_on_education.html#ixzz0vMoaXVWcis a Democratic state senator from Philadelphia who ran for governor this year on a platform that included universal school choice
I was raised to revere the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As a child, I learned of its legendary achievements in fighting against the oppression of the human spirit and removing the barriers of segregation and racial discrimination. The organization's recent involvement in controversies surrounding Shirley Sherrod and the tea party, however, indicates a shift away from its core values. Today, the long-revered civil rights group seems more concerned about public relations, political positioning, and currying interest-group favor than providing a voice to the voiceless. Nowhere is this transformation more evident, or troubling, than in the area of education.
Whenever the NAACP is mentioned, one immediately thinks of Brown v. Board of Education, the historic civil rights case the NAACP argued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. With Brown, the NAACP helped to end legally segregated public schools and overturned the racist policy of "separate but equal." Unfortunately, the mission of the NAACP to protect equal access to quality public education has changed. At least it seemed that way to me as I read the Wall Street Journal article "Failing Schools Can Stay Open" on July 1, which described the NAACP's lawsuit to force New York City to keep open 19 failing public schools.
As a Pennsylvania state senator representing a district with failing schools, I have seen thousands of children deprived of a quality education. Only 10 percent of the children who enter Philadelphia's ninth grade go on to graduate college. In this country an African American male who drops out of high school is more likely than not to
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