Charter schools should educate, not discriminate
Immigrant children deserve excellent schooling too
- Topics:
- Education
- Immigration
- Charter Schools
Public schools have historically been key institutions in our nation of immigrants. They provide a space for young people, regardless of their economic or ethnic background, to acclimate themselves to U.S. norms, share their cultures with their peers and learn to speak, read and write in English. As part of a formal Americanization push beginning at the turn of the last century, the schools provided English classes after school and on Saturdays, while settlement houses, private charity groups and city-based chambers of commerce helped adults learn the language. By the 1910s, at least some European immigrant children in Northeastern and Midwestern states had access to bilingual English-language education programs that allowed them to form the basic civic ties necessary for social advancement. The community-based programs expanded until, after the end of World War I, they began to be defunded locally in favor of more nationalized programs. The public schools, though, remained as one of the most critical nodes for English acquisition in communities.
Today traditional public schools are suffering cuts and closures at the hands of federal and state lawmakers — sometimes even at the hands of mayors. Schools committed to bilingual and English language learner (ELL) education, which serve kids who are learning English in addition to their native language, are as vulnerable as the rest. And the charter schools sprouting in U.S. cities, where many first-generation immigrants live, aren’t always able or willing to provide the same service.
Charters are the linchpin of the so-called education reform movement, which rests on the assumption that private schools outperform public schools simply by virtue of being privately run.So-called reformers promote the mass implementation of charter schools as a market-oriented fix for the troubles of public schools in impoverished districts. According to the National Alliance for