At its yearly convention in 2016, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People voted for a resolution that called for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools in the U.S. As I wrote at the time, the NAACP’s talking points and verbiage had come directly from the National Education Association playbook with all the inherent fibs, half-truths and exaggerations intact. Much of this can be explained by the fact that NEA and the American Federation of Teachers have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the NAACP over the past ten years.
Now a year later, there’s a new NAACP report on charter schools which suspiciously mimics the revised NEA report on charters issued just weeks before at the union’s yearly gathering. Oh, there were hearings held by the NAACP earlier this year where both sides of the debate were supposed to be heard, but pro-charter dissenters were given short shrift, leading many to believe that the hearings were little more than a dog-and-pony show. And unsurprisingly, the NEA heartily approved of the report’s findings, with the union’s VP Becky Pringle providing the weasel words: “America’s educators stand in solidarity with our students of color. As the NEA declared earlier this summer, handing over students’ education to privately managed, unaccountable charters jeopardizes student success, undermines public education and harms communities.”
The new union-inspired NAACP policy repeats its call for a moratorium and will continue to do so until certain criteria are met – only school districts (typically controlled by the local teachers union) should be able to grant a charter, for-profit charters should be outlawed, only certified teachers should be allowed to teach in charters, charters should be more accountable – blah, blah, blah. In other words, NEA/NAACP wants charters to become just like the traditional public schools (TPS) that millions of parents are desperately trying to escape. Interestingly, neither the NEA nor NAACP seems to be concerned by a lack of accountability in TPS. When a TPS is failing, the union whine usually goes like this, “Our high school grads are reading on a third grade level because schools are underfunded, or because the students come from poor families, or English isn’t their first language, or…” (Never explained is how charters usually get better results than TPS and do it with considerably less money.)
At the very same time the NAACP rolled out its new policy, the results of a charter school study were announced...
To continue reading, click here to go to California Policy Center.
Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues.
On charter school policy, the National Education Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are still in lockstep.
At its yearly convention in 2016, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People voted for a resolution that called for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools in the U.S. As I wrote at the time, the NAACP’s talking points and verbiage had come directly from the National Education Association playbook with all the inherent fibs, half-truths and exaggerations intact. Much of this can be explained by the fact that NEA and the American Federation of Teachers have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the NAACP over the past ten years.
Now a year later, there’s a new NAACP report on charter schools which suspiciously mimics the revised NEA report on charters issued just weeks before at the union’s yearly gathering. Oh, there were hearings held by the NAACP earlier this year where both sides of the debate were supposed to be heard, but pro-charter dissenters were given short shrift, leading many to believe that the hearings were little more than a dog-and-pony show. And unsurprisingly, the NEA heartily approved of the report’s findings, with the union’s VP Becky Pringle providing the weasel words: “America’s educators stand in solidarity with our students of color. As the NEA declared earlier this summer, handing over students’ education to privately managed, unaccountable charters jeopardizes student success, undermines public education and harms communities.”
The new union-inspired NAACP policy repeats its call for a moratorium and will continue to do so until certain criteria are met – only school districts (typically controlled by the local teachers union) should be able to grant a charter, for-profit charters should be outlawed, only certified teachers should be allowed to teach in charters, charters should be more accountable – blah, blah, blah. In other words, NEA/NAACP wants charters to become just like the traditional public schools (TPS) that millions of parents are desperately trying to escape. Interestingly, neither the NEA nor NAACP seems to be concerned by a lack of accountability in TPS. When a TPS is failing, the union whine usually goes like this, “Our high school grads are reading on a third grade level because schools are underfunded, or because the students come from poor families, or English isn’t their first language, or…” (Never explained is how charters usually get better results than TPS and do it with considerably less money.)
At the very same time the NAACP rolled out its new policy, the results of a charter school study were announced...
To continue reading, click here to go to California Policy Center.
Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues.
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