Charter schools are rebuilding the walls of segregation: As I See It
By Bill Maxwell
Charter schools are seen by many parents, policymakers and educators as the panacea in public education. Each year, these campuses are increasing in number nationwide.
In a recent survey of research on school choice and charter schools, the Hechinger Report, an independent education news affiliate of Teachers College at Columbia University, finds mounting evidence that charters are not a panacea. In fact, they are enabling our return to racial segregation in public education.
Some advocates used to believe that school choice through charters would help diversify public education despite racially segregated housing patterns. But that has not been happening.
"Charter schools and their proponents argue that charters must take any student who wants to attend -- and randomly select students through a lottery if too many apply -- and, as such, can't control who enrolls," according to the Hechinger Report. "Yet some experts are concerned that this trend is an example of the next phase of white flight, following a long history of white families seeking out homogeneous neighborhoods and schools."
At the beginning of the movement, many charters -- independent public schools given freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for raising student achievement -- were established in cities, and they served predominantly African-