Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Despite black parent anger in New York City, NAACP is right - USATODAY.com

Despite black parent anger in New York City, NAACP is right - USATODAY.com: The NAACP is being attacked by parents of New York City schoolchildren who are angered by the civil rights group's support for a lawsuit that seeks to keep 20 charter schools out of buildings that already are occupied by traditional public schools.

The suit also attempts to block the closing of some of the city's underperforming public schools, the kind of schools that make many parents clamor for a way out. In the 20 years since Minnesota enacted the first law allowing charter schools, this hybrid approach to public education has become an increasingly popular escape hatch, especially for black students.

While blacks are 30% of the New York City's 1 million public school children, they are 60% of the youngsters enrolled in the Big Apple's 125 charter schools. So, black parents of charter school students in the city think the NAACP's support of the lawsuit, which was filed last month by the United Federation of Teachers, amounts to an act of racial treason.