"And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them; but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, 'Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God.'"
--Luke, 18: 15-16
Outside agitators? Did somebody really bring up outside agitators in this ongoing battle between those who favor giving charter schools a chance and those who'd prefer the status inferior quo?
When some of us think about outside agitators, we remember back to the bad old days when marches for civil rights were dismissed by many white folk: "Just a bunch of outside agitators stirring up our blacks. Our blacks are content. If not for these outside agitators and commies, our blacks would be fine . . . ."
"Their" blacks, mind you. Funny, though, how many local black people--and, yes, even some local white people--were seen and heard in those marches. Turns out that a lot of those outside agitators were really inside agitators, and fed up with how they were being treated. It may have taken a man like Martin Luther King Jr. to get the place rockin' with the cadences he learned in the black church over the years, but he was preaching to the locals. After all, who cared more about sanitation workers in Memphis than sanitation workers in Memphis? Who cared more about voting rights in Selma than folks who lived in Selma? Who cared more about racist business practices in Birmingham than folks who saw them in practice in Birmingham?
Now there is another political battle being waged, and it's every bit as important as the last generation's marches throughout the South. Call it this generation's civil rights battle. And it's being waged in our schools, on our streets, and, sometimes, in formerly smoke-filled back rooms.
In some big cities, public charter schools are educating half the kids. In one particular big city--New Orleans--nearly all its schools have been converted to charter schools. And kids are learning. And if they're not, charter schools can be shut down--a big improvement over traditional public schools that can go on failing student after student, class after class.
But sometimes the kids aren't the priority. As when politics and power get involved. Then the kids have to go to the back of the bus.
Hard as it may be to believe, the nation's oldest and newest civil-rights outfits have called a moratorium on charter schools. In the last month, both the NAACP and the Movement for Black Lives held conventions. According to the New York Times, both passed resolutions declaring that charters are harming the community. Mainly by re-segregating the schools, and especially the way they select kids.
First, that's just not true. The charter schools we're familiar with either (1) focus on minority neighborhoods and educate minority children, or (2) have a lottery to select their students.
But what really caught our eye, like a hot cinder, was the (supposed) civil rights outfits portraying charter schools as pet projects for rich white folk. That is, outside agitators.
Certainly there have been some charitable donations to help start charter schools here and there. Take, for best example, the Walton family and its foundation. But there have been many others who have wanted to see improvements in the public schools, and have put their money where their hopes were.
Lest we forget, charter schools are public schools. They're paid for with tax dollars. That is, we're all paying for them, not just rich folks.
Howard Fuller, a professor of education at Marquette University and civil rights activist who supports charter schools, sounds about as mad as the rest of us should be when he hears the criticisms:
"You look at traditional districts, housing policies, all the things that have created this problem, and a charter school comes into these environments and tries to create a great school. For you to criticize based on segregation is beyond the pale. I don't understand it. I literally don't understand it."
We literally understand it. It's power politics. Some civil-rights outfits are aligned with teachers' unions politically. Public charter schools, for the most part, are not unionized, giving principals and administrators more of a say in hiring. The teachers' unions in the big cities can't have that. And have a financial interest in making sure the civil-rights outfits know their place in this matter.
The kids? They're a secondary priority, if that.
Money talks. That's sad enough.
But to turn to arguments about segregation and outside agitators? In an attempt to keep a lot of black kids down? That's just shameful. Downright shameful.
Editorial on 08/28/2016