Education Week - August 31, 2016 - 14

Does the African-American Community Support Charters?
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

posed communities-brought in reform ideas, [such as] charter schools,
but didn't hire local teachers-
almost engaging in this work in a
missionary manner," said Shavar
Jeffries, the president of Democrats
for Education Reform, a national,
pro-charter advocacy group. "And
that will absolutely undermine the
ability of education reform to sustain itself."
But, he said, support for charters
is strong among low-income black
and Latino families.

for there not to be a division."
Although schools are important
in any community, that is especially
so for black communities, said Jeffrey Henig, a professor of political
science and education at Teachers
College, Columbia University. Not
only was educational opportunity
an important goal of the civil rights

October, cites increased segregation, high rates of suspensions and
expulsions for black students, ﬁscal
mismanagement, and poor oversight
in charter schools as reasons to hit
pause on the sector's growth.
Joan Duvall Flynn, the president
of the NAACP's Pennsylvania state
conference and local branches, was

education. The closest democratic
institution to every kitchen table
is the school board."
Charter schools, though funded
with taxpayer dollars, are directly
run by appointed boards, not elected
ones.
The NAACP's resolution further
states that charter schools are rap-

U.S. Total Student Enrollment
CHARTER SCHOOL
Percentage of charter enrollment

Core of Community
Although charter schools are
more popular with Republicans,
they garner strong support from
Democrats-58 percent-according
to a 2016 poll from Education Next,
a journal published by Stanford
University's Hoover Institution.
But that support among Democrats starts to break down somewhat among survey respondents
who are black. Forty-ﬁve percent of
African-American respondents said
they either "completely support" or
"somewhat support" charter schools,
compared with 29 percent that either "completely oppose" or "somewhat oppose" charters. Twenty-six
percent said they neither support
nor oppose charters.
Those divides in black public
opinion are nothing new, said Howard Fuller, a former superintendent
of the Milwaukee schools and the
founder of the pro-charter school advocacy organization, Black Alliance
for Educational Options. (See related
Commentary, Page 18.)
"No matter what the public
policy is, the downside of this has
been that the push to improve academic achievement has led to black
schools being closed, black teachers
losing their jobs and being devalued," said Fuller. "It's not possible
for this type of change to occur and

Black

28
29

Hispanic

Bigger Debates

35%

White

NON-CHARTER SCHOOL
Percentage of non-charter enrollment
Black
Hispanic

15
25
50%

White

SOURCE: Education Week Research Center, 2016. Analysis of data from U.S. Department
of Education's Common Core of Data (2012-13).

movement, schools hired black employees before much of the public
sector did, he said.
"The African-American community was shut out of power and authority for so many years, even if
African-Americans see the warts on
the local district, it's their district,"
Henig said.
The NAACP's proposed moratorium, which still has to be approved
by the group's national board in

struck by how many of those issues
echoed concerns she had identiﬁed
in her own state. The language calling for the moratorium was proposed by the California chapter.
"The fact that way across the
country they're having the same
observations and experiences, I
think makes it clear that this is
a nationwide issue," Duvall Flynn
said. "We are very concerned about
the loss of local control of public

INTERACTIVE DATA: View

enrollment breakdowns
for all student groups.
www.edweek.org/go/
charter-diversity

idly expanding and are "increasingly
targeting low-income areas and
communities of color."
The most visible segment of the
charter sector-propelled in part
by deep-pocketed foundations-is
focused on setting up shop in lowincome, urban neighborhoods with
the aim of serving the black and
Latino students who live in those
communities. That's the goal of
many of the nation's highest-proﬁle
charter school networks, such as
KIPP, YES Prep, and Aspire Public
Schools.

Charter Demographics

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Many of the themes in the
NAACP's resolution, such as concerns over strict discipline policies
and school closures, are echoed in
the education agenda outlined by
the Movement for Black Lives.
Its agenda also targets some of
the most powerful philanthropic
backers of the charter school sector. It calls out the Walton Family
Foundation, the Eli and Edythe
Broad Foundation, and the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation for
bankrolling what it calls "an international education privatization
agenda" that includes the expansion
of charter schools. (All three foundations help support coverage of
different issues in Education Week.
The newspaper retains sole editorial
control over its content.)

Nationally, black students make
up 28 percent of charter school enrollment, compared with 15 percent
of noncharter enrollment, according
to an Education Week Research Center analysis of federal data from the
2012-13 school year. White students
make up 35 percent of total charter
school enrollment and 50 percent of
the public, noncharter sector.
But the racial makeup of charter
schools varies greatly from state to
state. Black students make up large
majorities of charter school enrollment in Louisiana, New Jersey, and
Tennessee-in areas where states
have taken over low-performing
districts or schools.

The Movement for Black Lives
agenda also demands an end to
converting regular public schools
to charters, closing schools, and
taking over schools by states and
mayors, among other initiatives.
The agenda was shaped by young
activists whose outlooks have been
molded by drastic changes in
urban education in cities such as
Philadelphia, New Orleans, and
Chicago, said Jonathan Stith, the
national coordinator for the Alliance for Educational Justice, a
group that works with student
activists in urban communities.
Stith, whose organization is part
of the Movement for Black Lives,
helped write the platform.
Critics of the proposed charter
moratoriums have said the groups
are taking direction from the teachers' unions, which generally oppose
the expansion of charters. But Stith
rebuffs those accusations, saying
the movement is charting its own
path. He points to a crucial part of
his group's agenda that he says the
unions have kept quiet on-how
police in schools negatively impact
students.
"What's been interesting is seeing
the two teachers' unions being very
'yay, anti-privatization,' but very
silent around school police," said
Stith. "The education of black children in this country is caught between a policeman and a privatizer."
Although it's still too early to
know whether the stances taken
by the NAACP and the Movement
for Black Lives will ultimately affect policy or support for the charter sector, they may be symptoms
of other challenges facing charter
school supporters.
"More and more, education politics and policy is being inﬁltrated
by these bigger wars over the proper
role of government, the proper role
of philanthropy, and the proper role
of markets," said Henig of Teachers
College.
Charter schools rode in on a wave
of reform that included teacher accountability, high-stakes testing,
and private providers, he said.
"Those bigger debates seem to be
sticking to the charter issue in ways
that helped it initially and are now
slowing it down."

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Education Week - August 31, 2016

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