New report: “Charter schools’ political success is a civil rights failure”

Experts at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Civil Rights Project (Proyecto Derechos Civiles) released a new report today that raises fresh questions about charter schools and their contribution to ongoing re-segregation of public education in America. The report, “Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards,” is, according to a press release that accompanied it:

a nationwide report based on an analysis of Federal government data and an examination of charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia, along with several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charters. The report found that charter schools continue to stratify students by race, class, and possibly language, and are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the country.”

The release goes on to say:

The study’s key findings suggest that charter schools, particularly those in the western United States are havens for white re-segregation from public schools; requirements for providing essential equity data to the federal government go unmet across the nation; and magnet schools are overlooked, in spite of showing greater levels of integration and academic achievement than charters.”

As for what to do about it:

The study offers several recommendations for restoring equity provisions and integration in charter schools, including establishing new guidance and reporting requirements by the Federal government; federal funding opportunities for magnet schools, which have a documented legacy of reducing racial isolation and improving student outcomes; and incorporating some features of magnet schools into charter schools. The report also recommends heightened enforcement of existing state-level legislation with specific provisions regarding diversity in charter schools, and monitoring patterns of charter school enrollment and attrition, focusing particularly on reporting the demographic information of charter school students on low-income and ELL characteristics.”

Sounds like a “must read” for North Carolina lawmakers, education officials and, ideally, charter school advocates, before the state revisits the issue of lifting its statutory charter school cap above its present level.