Seung Ok on Charter Schools

Seung Ok, who is running on the ICE-TJC slate for Vocational HS VP (Mulgrew's old position) has been pretty active today in the charter school war room.

He posted a superb piece of MUST READ writing on how charter schools harm public schools which we posted at GEM and at the ICE UFT Election blog.

Then he found this article and made some important comments on where charter schools, which have roots in white supremacy in the south, are going to go eventually. Is it any wonder that the NAACP has woken up and seen the charters for what they are?

Seung Ok writes:

Here's an article from Georgia talking about the desire for private school parents to eye charter schools as an access for public money:

"In fighting approval of a regional charter school, southwest Georgia superintendents allege that the Pataula Charter Academy would signal a return to the era in Georgia when blacks and whites attended different schools.

The debate is re-opening old wounds of race and disparate education in districts still under court desegregation orders

One of seven charter schools — public schools that operate with greater autonomy in exchange for greater accountability — approved by a new state commission, Pataula plans to open in the fall as a regional public k-8 school. It will enroll 440 students from Randolph, Calhoun, Early, Clay and Baker counties. Some districts now want the state Board of Education to stop Pataula.

Along with drawing from the majority black schools in the region, Pataula is attracting students from two private academies, which are virtually all-white.

“Initially, you will see more urgency on the side of private school parents who are tired of paying tuition,” said Ben Dismukes, a Pataula founder and himself the parent of two private-school students.

The interest of private school parents has sparked worries that Pataula is a seg academy posing as a public charter school. To counter the innuendo that it is a “white school,” Pataula has held lotteries for slots in the grades that were oversubscribed and encouraged all families to apply. "

---good luck to those minorities winning lottery seats among a mass of white student candidates. Plus, the article goes on to say, that since charter schools are not mandated to provide buses, few of the black students can actually make it out to these charter schools in white districts.

http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/02/06/new-regional-charter-school-not-a-blackwhite-issue/?cxntfid=blogs_get_schooled_blog