Study: Segregation rife at charter schools

[KamaAina]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/05/MNBN1BSOIL.DTL

De facto segregation is alive and well in public schools in virtually every state, but is more common in charter schools - an educational option increasingly endorsed in state and national reform efforts, according to a national study released Thursday....

Nearly 3 out of 4 black students who attend charters are in "intensely segregated" schools with student populations that are at least 90 percent minority, according to the study by the UCLA Civil Rights Project. That's twice the rate of regular public schools.

Almost a third of those black students are in what the researchers called "apartheid schools," where 0 to 1 percent of their classmates are white. Charter schools in the Bay Area and California have similar rates of racial isolation.

These are "the very kind of schools that decades of civil rights struggles fought to abolish in the South," researchers said.

Way to go! Let's resegregate while we privatize! It's a win-win!
:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[rfranklin]

1. This was always the impetus for charter schools...

Going back to the days of bussing.

[fascisthunter]

2. regressive movement is in full-swing

[supernova]

3. Great big D'uh!

The whole reason for charter schools and private schools isn' t better education, it's resegregation.

[madrchsod]

4. separate and unequal

this is not what the civil rights leaders fought and died for

[Jamastiene]

5. All you have to do to see the real reason charter schools started up is

look at Charlotte-Mecklenburg's reasons for starting up charter schools. They got tired of busing kids around to keep up with integration and looked for a loophole. That is the epicenter if you want to see the problems with taking money away from public education for what is essentially a scheme to re-segregate schools using taxpayers' money.

I guess it's obvious I'm against all these "charter" schools. The entire point is that charter schools are taking even more money away from public schools instead of actually putting the money in schools that are in shambles because of unequal funding based on race and class.

[Progressive_In_NC]

10. Well in Raleigh, there are "locked" public schools that avoid busing for important people's kids

So kids in my neighborhood hit the bus stop at 6am in the name of diversity. Kids in North Raleigh got to local schools that are locked. Who goes to these schools? John Edward's kids used to go there when he lived over off of Alleghany Drive. The high up members of the state school board...their kids went to these school too. The Wake County Public schools higher ups -- their kids go to these "locked" schools.

SO in Raleigh, the message is that de-segregation is only for the poor. The rich, even the ones in power in the school system, did different things for thier kids. Meanwhile, kids in my neighborhood are pulled out of bed at 5:45 to go to school. They drive past 4-5 good schools on their way to their assigned school and they fall asleep on the ride home somedays). All in the name of diversity it would seem.

My kids are home schooled, but as we live in a very integrated neighborhood, they see kids of different ethnic backgrounds in the yards every day. At one point, we were assigned to two different schools 9 miles away from each other, and just getting the kids there was a challenge.

[rocktivity]

6. Candidate for this year's "You Call This NEWS?" Award

The "To Figure This Out, You Had To Do A Freaking STUDY?" category.

Well, duh--what do they THINK "charter" and "target" schools are really all about? "This school isn't predominatly black--it's predominantly remedial reading majors!"

:eyes:
rocktivity

[noamnety]

7. The article doesn't adequately address the reasons for this.

The failing schools are in underserved populations - minority populations. Those are the groups most desperate to escape their current school situation. In other words - those same kids would typically be at equally segregated schools if they stayed in their neighborhood schools.

The study is comparing apples and oranges. They should compare the segregation at the charters to the segregation in the other public schools the charters are located at. If a student leaves a 90% black school to go to another 90% black school, charters haven't "increased" segregation, and it's false to claim that that's the underlying reason for creating charters.

[FrenchieCat]

8. Like Public Schools aren't? Based on the fact what decides where children attend school

is based on one's address, should tell you all you need to know.....public or charter.

Our public schools have been segregated in most towns and cities for fucking ever!

The only school that have no address criteria are private schools. Doh.

So I don't know what this post is supposed to prove.

[KamaAina]

9. The article states that 3 of 4 AA charter students are in segregated schools

twice the rate of public schools.

And many, if not most, charters are district-wide. Their address criteria are less strict than those of traditional public schools. So they should be less segregated, not more.

[noamnety]

11. I think you are missing cause and effect

Charters are located in the worst areas typically - which means they are located in already highly segregated areas. They are not more segregated than the other public schools in the same area.

The article compared schools located in the most segregated areas of the country to schools across the entire country - and, big shock, they found that schools located in segregated areas are more segregated.