Rashad Anthony Turner, a prominent leader in the St. Paul, Minn., Black Lives Matter movement, has quit over the national movement’s position on school choice.
“Being that I am all for charter schools and ed reform, and as someone who is seeking educational justice for students and families, I could no longer be under that banner of Black Lives Matter,” Turner said, according to The 74. “Black Lives Matter has been co-opted. The movement’s been hijacked.”
In recent months, both the NAACP and the Movement for Black Lives called for a moratorium on public charter schools. “I was very surprised the NAACP and BLM would call for a moratorium on independent charter schools but not call for an end to the suspensions and expulsions of children of color,” Turner said. Those calls for moratoriums have also been criticized by leaders of the Black Alliance for Educational Options and Democrats for Education Reform.
He added that the local teachers union, the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, has been “demonizing and criminalizing black students.”
Technically, BLM St. Paul isn’t a chapter recognized by the official Black Lives Matter organization, but the movement has a reputation for being widespread and loosely organized without a formal hierarchy.
Turner’s prominence rose in July after Philando Castile was shot and killed by police in nearby Falcon Heights, Minn. As a local Black Lives Matter leader, Turner organized some of the protests in response to the incident.
Charter schools are publicly funded and do not charge tuition, but they are privately run. 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 often must often use a lottery system to allocate spaces.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
