Civil Rights, Segregation and Charter Schools

A recent report released by the Civil Rights Project analyzed 40 states, the District of Columbia, and several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charter school students and concluded that charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools.


At the 2010 National Charter Schools Conference in Chicago in late June, a panel of charter school supporters and critics discussed this issue: "To what extent are charter schools racially, economically and academically segregated?" asked Chicago-based Renaissance School Fund CEO Phyllis Lockett, who moderated the discussion. "We have to serve kids where they are," she said, "and most of our communities are segregated."

"If we were really worried about integration and segregation, perhaps we might want to look at the 95 percent of kids in traditional public schools who are in segregated schools," said University of Arkansas education policy professor Gary Ritter. "When we talk about integration and segregation, it might be looking for another way to criticize charter [schools]. And these charters that are segregated are schools of choice and are not the result of forced segregation."

The conclusion by moderator Lockett is, "Although [integration] should be a goal, I think the issue is not about integration. It's really about quality [education].”

My thoughts – and I welcome yours as well – is that by law charter schools are schools of choice; under a segregated society there isn’t any choice. By criticizing charter schools, critics are trying to take away a parents choice to provide a better education for their children which many believe is a civil rights issue.