Last Call For Chartering A Scam

I've long railed against charter schools as a massive sinkhole for giving billions in education money to private companies in order to weaken public schools to the point of destruction, but there's always been a racial component to the scam as well.  Charter schools are sold to black and Latino parents as a way to get their kids out of "failing public schools" when of course all it does is send money away from already strapped inner city schools.

In North Carolina, the extent of the charter schools scam is now becoming somewhat more evident.

A report showing the student population at state charter schools is wealthier and whiter than student bodies at traditional public schools was pulled Wednesday from the State Board of Education’s consideration. 

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest argued that the report, intended for the legislature and full of data on charter school enrollment, demographics and costs, was too negative. 

“The report, to me, did not have a lot of positive things to say,” he said.

No kidding?

And of course since the report wasn't so nice, Forest pulls the report off the NC assembly's agenda.

More than 57 percent of students attending charter schools in the current school year are white, compared with traditional public schools’ 49.5 percent, the report said. 

The proportion of African-American students is about the same across both types of schools. A little more than 8 percent of charter students are Hispanic, while enrollment at traditional schools is more than 16 percent Hispanic. 

The report also references an April 2015 study by Helen Ladd, Charles Clotfelter and John Holbein of Duke University that showed little integration within individual charter schools. Student populations at individual charters, their study found, are predominantly white or predominantly minority. 

The state board sends a report on charters to the legislature each year, but this one comes as charter school enrollments are accelerating while growth of traditional public schools stagnates. 

Charter enrollment increased quickly after the state lifted the 100-school cap in 2011. About 41,200 students were enrolled in charters then. Last fall, nearly 82,000 students enrolled in one of 158 schools, according to the report. Overall, traditional public schools were expected to add about 3,700 students this year. 

Charter schools have a smaller proportion of low-income students, the report says. At charters last year, 36 percent of students were economically disadvantaged, compared with nearly 55 percent at traditional schools.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article53438435.html#storylink=cpy

In other words, charter schools are quickly becoming a two-tiered education system at taxpayer expense.  And that's exactly how Republicans want it.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article53438435.html#storylink=cpy