SOS Conference 2012, Day Two Afternoon
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| Sherick speaks; James looks on |
After lunch I today attended a session by Karran Harper Royal called “How [Some] African Americans Got on the Wrong Side of the Education Debate. Karran is a parent turned activist who was inspired to speak out after having difficulties twenty years ago with one of her children in kindergarten. She kept worrying that if he didn’t get help, he would get put on a wrong track that he might not be able to get off of.
Karran’s message throughout her talk was that corporate reform’s message is very tempting, and it's excellent at swaying uninformed people, especially poor and minority families who have long histories of negative relationships with their public schools. When charter schools come in waving their uniforms and their money and their “dedication to equity,” Karran says they’re very, very difficult to resist. She even noted that she too was once swayed by their lures, but after then New Orleans School Superintendent Paul Vallas (who has since moved on to Haiti and now Connecticut to promote the privatization of public education) began lying to her and
Karran’s message throughout her talk was that corporate reform’s message is very tempting, and it's excellent at swaying uninformed people, especially poor and minority families who have long histories of negative relationships with their public schools. When charter schools come in waving their uniforms and their money and their “dedication to equity,” Karran says they’re very, very difficult to resist. She even noted that she too was once swayed by their lures, but after then New Orleans School Superintendent Paul Vallas (who has since moved on to Haiti and now Connecticut to promote the privatization of public education) began lying to her and