NAACP reiterates opposition to charter expansion... 'Historically the NAACP has been in strong support of public education and has denounced movements toward privatization that divert public funds to support non-public school choices...'
NAACP is now more than 100 years old...In a statement to the press issued on October 15, 2016, the Board of the NAACP reiterated the organization's opposition to the continued expansion of charter schools in the USA. The statement came after several corporate "reform" groups tried to place pressure on the century-old civil rights organization to rescind the position that had been taken at the group's national convention.
NAACP PRESS STATEMENT:
STATEMENT REGARDING THE NAACP’S RESOLUTION ON A MORATORIUM ON CHARTER SCHOOLS, OCTOBER 15, 2016, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 15, 2016
CINCINNATI – Members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Board of Directors ratified a resolution Saturday adopted by delegates at its 2016 107th National Convention calling for a moratorium on charter school expansion and for the strengthening of oversight in governance and practice.
“The NAACP has been in the forefront of the struggle for and a staunch advocate of free, high-quality, fully and equitably-funded public education for all children,” said Roslyn M. Brock, Chairman of the National NAACP Board of Directors. “We are dedicated to eliminating the severe racial inequities that continue to plague the education system.”
The National Board’s decision to ratify this resolution reaffirms prior resolutions regarding charter schools and the importance of public education, and is one of 47 resolutions adopted today by the Board of Directors. The National Board’s decision to ratify supports its 2014 Resolution, ‘School Privatization Threat to Public Education’, in which the NAACP opposes privatization of public schools and public subsidizing or funding of for-profit or charter schools. Additionally, in 1998 the Association adopted a resolution which unequivocally opposed the establishment and granting of charter schools which are not subject to the same accountability and standardization of qualifications/certification of teachers as public schools and divert already-limited funds from public schools.
We are calling for a moratorium on the expansion of the charter schools at least until such time as:
(1) Charter schools are subject to the same transparency and accountability standards as public schools
(2) Public funds are not diverted to charter schools at the expense of the public school system
(3) Charter schools cease expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate and
(4) Cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.
Historically the NAACP has been in strong support of public education and has denounced movements toward privatization that divert public funds to support non-public school choices.
“We are moving forward to require that charter schools receive the same level of oversight, civil rights protections and provide the same level of transparency, and we require the same of traditional public schools,” Chairman Brock said. “Our decision today is driven by a long held principle and policy of the NAACP that high quality, free, public education should be afforded to all children.”
While we have reservations about charter schools, we recognize that many children attend traditional public schools that are inadequately and inequitably equipped to prepare them for the innovative and competitive environment they will face as adults. Underfunded and under-supported, these traditional public schools have much work to do to transform curriculum, prepare teachers, and give students the resources they need to have thriving careers in a technologically advanced society that is changing every year. There is no time to wait. Our children immediately deserve the best education we can provide.
“Our ultimate goal is that all children receive a quality public education that prepares them to be a contributing and productive citizen,” said Adora Obi Nweze, Chair of the National NAACP Education Committee, President of the Florida State Conference of the NAACP and a former educator whose committee guides educational policy for the Association.
“The NAACP’s resolution is not inspired by ideological opposition to charter schools but by our historical support of public schools – as well as today’s data and the present experience of NAACP branches in nearly every school district in the nation,” said Cornell William Brooks, President and CEO of the NAACP. “Our NAACP members, who as citizen advocates, not professional lobbyists, are those who attend school board meetings, engage with state legislatures and support both parents and teachers.”
“The vote taken by the NAACP is a declaratory statement by this Association that the proliferation of charter schools should be halted as we address the concerns raised in our resolution,” said Chairman Brock.
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Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities. You can read more about the NAACP’s work and our six “Game Changer” issue areas here.
Comments:
By: George Schmidt
Charter 'cap' is another CPS lie...
One of the reasons the Big Bargaining Team lost during the Stockholm Syndrome final hours on Columbus Day was that they had no one -- as in NO ONE -- who could immediately go over all the numbers CPS (with the collaboration of the "Big Table" negotiators) was throwing out. This was deliberate on the part of the faction of the CTU leadership that is now trying to sell the "TA." They had decided, nearly two years ago, that the only answer to their fantasies about "mobilization" and agitation (what they call "organizing") was "Yes, Karen... That's the truth..." even when it was a lie.
For the first time in CTU history, the leadership of the union has sat down to bargain without a math expert to cost out every offer from the Board (or every take back). A lot of people in the CTU can operate Excel well enough to provide real time numbers. Instead, CTU members, and the public, got "Well, that's sort of maybe how it will be kind of..." puffings and huffings from the "Big Table" bargainers.
Not only that, but the impact of other stuff that's been bargained (the example of the Charter School So-Called CAP" is just one here) wasn't honestly noted, either. The BBT members were forced to fly in the dark in a fog in the mountains of _____ piled up by not only the CPS bargainers -- but the CTU obfuscationists.
Anyone who knew the numbers from the city's charter "schools" (and so-called "campuses") could have told the "BBT" members, as they became more and more exhausted by being held hostage that night, that there are vacant seats at many of the charter schools' "campuses." They could also have told people, as we've reported in Substance for more than a decade, that a "Charter School" in Chicago is an office that is empowered to deploy an unlimited -- UNLIMITED -- number of so-called "campuses." As a result, the largest public school in Illinois is one of Chicago's charter schools -- which has "campuses" stretching from Peterson and Pulaski all the way out to 111th St.! That's ONE SCHOOL, according to those who parse reality in Chicago.
As has been said before: There is less to this than meets the eye. Not only will teachers and others (including, ironically, some members of the "BBT") lose their jobs if they sell this lousy deal, but the fate of the "rank and file" (supposedly the concern of those who are trying to sell this deal) will be locked in for four years into, as I've said before, the worst contract in the history of the Chicago Teachers Union.
No wonder the leadership got rid of independent research long before this nonsense began. "BROKE ON PURPOSE" was not the only lie sitting like a fatty meal in the pit of the rank and file's stomach. Reading everything that's in the deal, it's clear that the only answer to this stuffing is to vomit...
By: Bob Busch
The power of language
" enrollment capacity"
As taken from Susan's story above is a very smart, very deceiving ,inclusion by the Board.The board creates no new charter schools but can fill up the ones that already exist.
In 2016 Harper HS a charter had 245 students
It has to have a capacity of at least a thousand.Fenger had 245 students, it could hold a thousand students.Its not hard to see where this is going.
By: George Cruz
'TA' approved by HOD. Now to the membership vote
It's Over!?
The House of Delegates on October 19, 2016, approved the TA (Tentative Agreement) and most likely so will CTU members when they get to vote in a week in all the schools. The funny thing is the last time a contract was approved it took a few years before members began to realize the horror as to what was agreed too -- and lost. That was 2012.
But 2019 is a long way from now, and anything can happen as to the bag of tricks being pulled out by the district. Hopefully, new leadership will emerge and take the CTU back on the right path to servicing its members, rather than on focusing on social issues.
By: Susan Zupan
CTU "Side Letter on Charters" agrees to double the number of students in charter schools?
Here is the text of the CTU tentative contract agreement SIDE LETTER ON CHARTERS: "There will be a net zero increase in the number of Board authorized charter schools over the term of this agreement and the total number of students enrolled by the end of school year 2018-2019 will not exceed 101% of the total student enrollment capacity as of school year 2015-2016."
CTU members are basically being told, "It's 'something' where we had nothing before."
Here are my questions:
If CTU members vote for this contract, doesn't that mean they are officially agreeing to a doubling of the number of charter school students in the charter schools already in the Chicago system? So, CTU members are apparently being asked by their leadership to vote to officially agree with something that will result in a lowering of the number of students in their own union (CTU) schools?
Then, with school-based budgeting now validated by its mere mention in the tentative agreement (in another part of the contract that appears to be written in a 50/50ish splitting-the-losses kind of way that tries but does not in any effective way succeed in dealing with that particular crime against public education in Chicago), doesn't all of the above mean CTU members are being asked by their leaders to vote for a contract that will result in greatly reducing their own union job positions within CPS?
But there is no conflict of interest or need for concern on behalf of CTU members that CTU leadership is working closely with charter schools in Chicago via the IFT and AFT (whose dues-paying Chicago charter school members are not dues-paying CTU members)?