DFER’s Shavar Jeffries Cowers from Debating Cal State’s Julian Heilig
On July 29, 2016, Cal State Sacramento professor and NAACP education chair,Julian Heilig, posted that the NAACP drafted a new resolution in which it called for a moratorium on charter schools.
By way of a follow up, on August 08, 2016, I posted the NAACP’s charter school resolution history, which reflects the organization’s growing concerns with problems associated with federally-enabled charter school proliferation. The 2016 resolution is the most detailed regarding the NAACP’s concerns about charters, including charter contribution to increased segregation; focus on punitive discipline practices; violation of parent and student rights, and fiscal mismanagement exacerbated by public funding directed by privately-appointed charter boards.
The above are serious concerns, thus prompting the NAACP to encourage a moratorium on privately-managed charter schools even as it also encouraged both state and local legislation to “ensure that parents have access to charter school advisory boards” and “executive action to strengthen local governance and transparency of charter schools, and, in doing so… protect students and families from exploitative governance practices.”
In its resolution, the NAACP notes that it is not alone regarding its concerns about charter schools and the resulting call for a moratorium on charters (which happen to be a federal funding favorite beginning with No Child Left Behind, NCLB):
…The NAACP shares the concerns of the Journey for Justice Alliance, and alliance of 38 organizations of Black and Brown parents and students in 23 states, which has joined with 175 other national local grassroots community, youth, and civil rights organizations calling for a moratorium on the Federal Charter schools program, which has pumped over $3 billion into new charter schools, many of which have already closed or have failed the students drawn to them by the illusive promise of quality.
On August 03, 2016, the corporate-reform organization, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) president Shavar Jeffries released the following statement dismissing the NAACP et al.’s detailed concerns about charters and the resulting call for moratorium on associated federal dollars:
The public charter school moratorium put forward at this year’s NAACP convention does a disservice to communities of color, particularly the parents and caregivers who seek the best school options available to prepare their children for the demands of the 21st century. This moratorium would contravene the NAACP’s historic legacy as a champion for expanding opportunity for families of color. In communities of color throughout our country, public charter schools are providing pathways to college and careersDFER’s Shavar Jeffries Cowers from Debating Cal State’s Julian Heilig | deutsch29:
