NAACP ratifies controversial resolution for a moratorium on charter schools
The North Carolina NAACP’s president, Rev. William Barber, gestures during a news conference in Richmond in June. On Saturday, national NAACP leaders backed a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools. (Steve Helber/AP)
Leaders of the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the United States, bucked intense pressure from supporters of charter schools on Saturday and ratified a resolution calling for a moratorium on the expansion of charters and for stronger oversight of these schools.
Members of the NAACP’s board of directors, meeting in Cincinnati, ratified a resolution adopted in July by delegates to the organization’s 2016 convention that called for a moratorium on more charter schools until:
1. Charter schools are subject to the same transparency and accountability standards as public schools
2. Public funds are not diverted to charter schools at the expense of the public school system
3. Charter schools cease expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate
4. Cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest-performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.
This was not the first time the NAACP has expressed concern about charter schools, but this resolution goes further than others approved in recent years and had generated an intense campaign by supporters of charters to try to persuade the group’s board not to ratify it.
The campaign included pro-charter columns, blog posts and editorials, including by The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. A letter signed by 160 NAACP ratifies controversial resolution for a moratorium on charter schools - The Washington Post: