Charter Schools Effectively Segregate
Statistics show sorting by race in school enrollment
Demonstrators at a school choice rally held at the Arizona Capitol displayed various signs supporting both charter and district public schools in Arizona on Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.
Two decades after Arizona helped pioneer the charter school movement, enrollment data show the schools don’t match the school age demographics of the state and, in many cases, their neighborhoods. White — and especially Asian — students attend charter schools at a higher rate than Hispanics, who now make up the the greatest portion of Arizona’s school age population.
#Hispanic students account for 44 percent of all students in Arizona, but they make up just 36 percent of charter school students. White students, who make up 40 percent of the school age population, account for 48 percent of all charter students.
“The mission of public education is to give every child in our state the equal opportunity to excel to the maximum of their capabilities,” said Tim Ogle, executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association. “When you have disparities of opportunity, you are systemically inhibiting some groups over other groups through public policy, and that’s just inherently wrong.”
#The Arizona Department of Education hasn’t conducted a formal analysis of the school enrollment demographics, but the agency’s spokesman, Charles Tack, said they’re anecdotally aware of the disparity, and that the data “confirms that there is work to be done.”
#Researchers, education policy experts and school administrators say the disparity could be explained by a number of factors. The lack of transportation at some charter schools can provide a barrier, or an “information gap” about the charter school system may affect how minorities choose to participate in it. Parents might simply choose schools where the ethnic profile more closely matches their family.
#Arizona lawmakers established charter schools in the 1990s so that parents could send their children to schools specializing in rigor, the arts or Montessori teaching methods, to provide an education more tailored than what was traditionally available in public schools.
#Today, roughly 17 percent of all students in Arizona’s public schools attend a charter — about triple the national average of 5 percent. Only the District of Columbia has a greater portion of charter school students.
#Charter schools here receive state funding based on enrollment, and operate independent of school Charter schools effectively segregate | Payson Roundup - Payson, AZ:
