Recently the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) released a resolution that calls for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools. They are wrong for being opposed to charter schools and other vehicles that provide viable choices for the successful education of minority youth.
Charter public schools are providing critical educational choices for many families in our region and across the country. Charter schools are publicly funded and operate outside the control of local school districts and with greater autonomy than traditional public schools relative to operations, curriculum and instruction.
In Missouri, there are currently 68 charter schools serving approximately 20,700 students. More than 30 percent of all public school students in St. Louis and 42 percent of all public school students in Kansas City are charter school students.
In many cases, parents are choosing charters because their local district schools are failing to educate their children and parents are demanding better public education choices. In minority communities across the country , they are voting with their feet. Three million children now are enrolled in charter schools, and many more are clamoring to get in.
The NAACP should not abandon the 3 million charter students and their families. This misguided effort by the NAACP fails to take into account that successful and viable choices in public education are essential to their stated core mission: to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minorities and eliminate racial prejudice.
Brian A. Murphy, board president
Children’s Educational Alliance of Missouri