The NAACP Continues to Oppose School Choice for Low-Income Parents

The NAACP, teachers unions, and other liberals oppose choice when it comes to education.

For example, they oppose the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, which allows parents to send their children to better schools.

The Florida Teachers Union filed a lawsuit to eliminate the program, “despite the fact that minority children disproportionately benefit from this program,” Star Parker wrote, and “the NAACP joined the union as a plaintiff in the case.”

Although a court dismissed the lawsuit, the teachers union appealed.

The Washington Post reported on the NAACP’s resistance to another educational option for low-income parents: privately managed charter schools.

The organization purportedly concerned about the advancement of “colored” people passed a resolution that called for a moratorium on expanding charter schools:

The resolution won’t be official NAACP policy until the organization’s national board meets soon and decides whether to approve it — but the message from the majority of its members are clear. It says in part:

* “Charter schools have contributed to the increased segregation rather than diverse integration of our public school system.”

* “Weak oversight of charter schools puts students and communities at risk of harm, public funds at risk of being wasted, and further erodes local control of public education.”

* “[R]esearchers have warned that charter school expansions in low-income communities mirror predatory lending practices that led to the sub-prime mortgage disaster, putting schools and communities impacted by these practices at great risk of loss and harm…”

Increased segregation…in public schools. Is the NAACP saying that black children in government schools can’t do well unless they’re sitting beside white children? And if some charter schools are having problems, the issues can be addressed without impeding their growth and narrowing parental choice.

Sad and Pathetic. https://t.co/YK4Zzmjups

— Star Parker (@StarParker) August 9, 2016

School choice is a great tool for low-income communities. Don’t listen to the @NAACP on charter schools. https://t.co/bskBJ0ZOQJ

— Rev. Derek McCoy (@UrbanCure) August 8, 2016

The NAACP Is Attacking Charter Schools and Black Leaders Are Furious https://t.co/4ii4QJchF0

— reason (@reason) August 10, 2016

The Wall Street Journal noted that English and math proficiency at charter schools in New York City “this year jumped 13.7 percentage points in English and 4.5 percentage points in math to 43% and 47%, respectively. In other words, charter students have improved by two to four times as much as the citywide average.”

Students at these schools, which are over 90 percent black and Hispanic, “scored 73% higher than their counterparts at district-run schools.”

Let’s hope blacks who care about their children’s education and want school choice stop voting against their interests.

Photo credit: U.S. Department of Education (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved