https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/the-charter-school-swindle-selling-segregation-to-blacks-and-latinos/
We can blame charters and banks and realtors and policymakers and ChickenLittlers for our segregated schools (and we should!) – but we also have to blame ourselves as parents.
It is high time that we place a SPECIFIC VALUE ON INTEGRATION. Until we parents invest our children and our loud voices in integrated schools, this trend is likely to only strengthen. While we can talk policymaking all day (and I suspect we would be in agreement all day), until we have parents actively and intentionally CHOOSING socioeconomically integrated schools, we will hit wall upon wall upon wall.
But it’s tricky. And it’s tricky for a thousand reasons. And one of the most ironic reasons is that the more we segregate, the more we are likely to segregate. Distance begets discomfort begets distance. (More on fear/schools here Yes, You CAN be too Careful [https://integratedschools.org/2016/01/04/you-can-be-too-careful-the-narrative-of-vulnerability-and-terrorism/] )
You rightly point out that oftentimes charters do worse by kids – better by making parents ‘feel’ more heard though worse in actually educating students. So, then we public school integrationists need a much better marketing campaign. A lot more and a lot better stories about schools with high concentrations of poverty, perhaps…?
And we need to be louder and clearer about why integration is important BOTH for country and your individual kid.
And we need to not shy away from the actual and really shitty problems that come with integration.
Weirdly, I think we are at a particularly good time for making this work… (more on that to come soon at my blog…. If I can ever finish writing it….)
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