School choice supporters tout questionable data on charters
Charter schools in North Carolina are becomingly increasingly white and affluent. Those are two of the overriding conclusions derived from recent analysis of the state’s charter population by a variety of stakeholders.
But a new set of numbers circulating among prominent school choice advocates in Raleigh indicates the opposite, much to the consternation of public school backers in North Carolina.
The numbers, distributed at recent speeches by Mecklenburg County attorney Richard Vinroot, a former Charlotte mayor and GOP gubernatorial candidate who’s a major figure in North Carolina’s school choice movement, claim that the state’s charters serve a greater percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch as well as special education classes than do traditional public schools.
Both claims fly in the face of a long-standing complaint from traditional public school supporters that charter schools—which are, in some cases, exceeding the academic achievements of their counterparts in traditional public schools—serve an altogether different population of North Carolina children.
But both of Vinroot’s claims, according to public school advocates and K-12 experts who spoke to Policy Watch, would appear to be, at best, distortions.
“These numbers mask the reality of segregation by race and class,” says Yevonne Brannon, a former Wake County commissioner who now leads Public Schools First N.C., a traditional schools advocacy group.
Brannon isn’t the only one complaining. Multiple advocates and officials who spoke to Policy Watch say they believe the numbers reflect a misleading new strategy aimed at propping up School choice supporters tout questionable data on charters | NC Policy Watch:
