ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —
Education leaders say the so-called school choice movement is leading to a re-segregation of public schools.
As state funding for charter schools is rapidly increasing, Eyewitness News learned that in
most charter schools lack economic and racial diversity.
Sixty years since the Supreme Court struck down "the separate but equal doctrine," there's concern that the school-choice movement is leading parents to choose a segregated environment for their children.
“I think it does a disservice to our young people," said State
Sen. Geraldine Thompson.
She knows firsthand the impact of segregated schools.
“Until I went to college I’d never been in an integrated setting," Thompson said.
Thompson is concerned about data that shows the rapidly expanding charter-school sector is much more racially isolated than traditional public schools.
“They cream from the best performing students, or in order to justify the for-profit corporations that run these schools, they target low-income students under the guise of giving them choice," Thompson said.
Orange County school board chair Bill Sublette says the county's charter schools are concentrated in either very high poverty areas
or upper-middle income areas with no in-between
