Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
The NAACP supports choice when it comes to abortion, but not when it comes to schools.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush signed the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship into law in 2001. The program provides scholarships for low-income families to send their children to better schools. Naturally, teachers unions oppose the program.
And so does the NAACP, even though the program helps black families.
The organization joined a teachers union lawsuit to strike down the law. Star Parker, founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, wrote about a group of pastors who urged the NAACP to drop out of the lawsuit.
The teachers union and the NAACP lost that suit.
The NAACP also passed a resolution in 2015 calling for a moratorium on new charter schools. But this week three local NAACP chapters in California have come out against their parent organization and teachers unions. From the Wall Street Journal:
The LA School Report says NAACP chapters in San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside have filed resolutions opposing a moratorium that the national NAACP has pushed under pressure from teachers unions that are a source of its funding.
The local chapters are putting opportunity for black students above political solidarity, and the evidence is on their side. A Stanford study of California charter schools in 2014 showed that black students in Golden State charters gain the equivalent of 22 more days of instruction in reading and seven in math compared to counterparts in traditional schools. A 2015 study that focused on urban areas revealed that black students in southern California receive 14 days more of reading in charters and four more weeks of math.
San Diego’s resolution says “the academic performance of African American students must be the sole determinant of school district decision making rather than the financial benefit that a school district derives from public school funding generated by African American students.”
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved
