In a Thursday editorial, the New York Times called on the NAACP’s board to reject a moratorium on the expansion of public charter schools.
The paper’s editorial board called the proposed moratorium “ill-advised” and said it would reinforce the impression that the organization is out of touch with younger African-Americans.
In calling for more charters, the editorial board cited an extremely credible source: parents. The editorial notes that 44,000 students sat on charter waitlists at the start of the current school year. “In Harlem and the South Bronx, there are now four applicants for every charter school seat,” the editorial says. “Given the demand for good charters, a moratorium would clearly be a bad idea.”
Nationwide, more than a million students are on charter school waitlists according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
The editorial didn’t claim charters were a cure-all for every educational ill in the country. But it said whatever shortcomings charters may have were not grounds for a blanket moratorium.
For example, the NAACP says minority students are more likely than white students to be suspended from charter schools. The editorial agrees that disciplinary discrimination is a problem, but charter schools aren’t the only perpetrators. “That is, of course, outrageous, but it is an endemic problem to the public school system as a whole and not limited to charters,” the editorial says.
As for the NAACP’s claim that charters have caused more segregation, the editorial board is less amicable. “It’s nonsensical to fault a charter school for serving a minority student body in an overwhelmingly minority area.”
Charter schools are publicly funded and do not charge tuition, but they are privately run, often by non-profit organizations. Compared to traditional public schools, charters have more independence and flexibility in their operations and curricula, which is why many families find them desirable. They are open to all students, but due to demand they must often use a lottery system to allocate spaces.
“For many parents and students, a charter school is the only route to a superior education,” the editorial concludes. “In advocating a blanket moratorium on charters, the NAACP would fail to acknowledge what’s happening to children who need and deserve a way out of the broken schools to which they have been relegated.”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
