Seattle Schools Community Forum: Race, Education Reform and Public Schools

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Race, Education Reform and Public Schools:

Race, Education Reform and Public Schools

A very fine article from NPR from last September about race and charter schools provided a wide variety of thoughtful opinions.  Much of the debate has been around the NAACP calling for a moratorium on the opening on new charter schools.  

Some education leaders are rushing to embrace the newly frank conversation about the racial impact of education reforms. Others are caught awkwardly in the middle. And some — especially conservative — reformers feel alienated.

 Jonathan Stith 

"A lot of charters are just shiny versions of the school-to-prison pipeline. There are reports of fraud.

"I have yet to see a black community that has voted directly for charter schools. They always are imposed. Districts are being taken over by governors or mayors and given very little voice. And so there's this false language around choice.

"At the same time, we're not with the status quo. We're clear that 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, public schools have never served black children."

Jacqueline Cooper 

"The NAACP moratorium is inexplicable to me. Over 700,000 black students are enrolled in public charter schools.

"Who is anyone else to tell a parent where their child should be educated?"

I find that last statement puzzling when you are talking about public schools.  The government, funded by the citizens gets to choose the teachers, the principals, the curriculum, so why wouldn't they decided on where schools are and who goes to them?

The issue really is - and can be singly put - that every child deserves a quality neighborhood school.

Dr. Michael Lomax 

"I disagree with the moratorium on charters because I think charters are part of the solution.

"But many of these charter providers — social entrepreneurs with a new generation of philanthropists supporting them — know very little about their communities and are dismissive of legacy institutions that they see as dinosaurs. And as a new generation of African-American activists are coming to the fore, they're saying: Why are these organizations setting the agenda for educational change in our communities and not engaging us in the discussion?

Rick Hess

"Reform is increasingly a question of race-based grievance rather than helping all children."

Black Perspectives published a great provocative article last October called Seattle Schools Community Forum: Race, Education Reform and Public Schools: