As we move from Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday towards Black History Month, the state of public education and its impact on our children's futures should be at the forefront of our discussions and actions.

The School District of the City of York has been inundated with requests by various groups to allow them to set up, run or expand independent charter schools as alternative educational options for this city's school children. What should be the overriding question is: Do they work? A report by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes warned in unmistakable terms that, "in the aggregate, charter students are not faring as well as students in traditional schools."

Most charter schools are in low-income, often minority neighborhoods. They have an absolutely devastating effect on the local school districts. The school reform efforts of the late 1990s and early 2000s has given way to efforts to privatize the educational system in a way that lets those in the right position capitalize off the shortcomings of the public school system and the frustrations of the poor and disenfranchised - who only want quality education for