A resolution from the NAACP at the organization’s National Convention in Cincinnati in July calls for a moratorium on charter schools. It isn’t official policy until it is voted on at the National Board meeting in the Fall.

The resolution includes a number of concerns about charters. It states that charters increase segregation; some low-quality charters in low-income areas “mirror predatory lending practices;” the schools’ boards are generally appointed, not elected; many use harsh disciplinary measures; and government oversight of charters is too weak.

The document states:

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP reaffirms its 2014 Resolution, “School Privatization Threat to Public Education,” in which the NAACP opposes the privatization of public schools and/or public subsidizing or funding of for-profit or charter schools.

Later language, however, talks about making sure charters currently in operation are better managed and overseen, meaning it isn’t calling for the elimination of charters. It states, “the NAACP hereby supports a moratorium on the proliferation of privately managed charter schools.”

The resolution is stronger than language in the Democratic Party platform, which has similar concerns yet praises “high quality public charter schools [which] provide options for parents,” but there’s not a lot of daylight between the two documents. As would be expected, Democrats for Education Reform, which represents the “education reform”/privatization wing of the Democratic party, is very critical of the NAACP resolution, as it is of the education planks of the Democratic platform related to charter schools.

This article appears in Aug 4-10, 2016.

21 replies on “NAACP Calls For a Moratorium on Charter Schools”

  2. You do understand that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization for ethnic minorities in the United States right?

    I mean it is not like the AARP, which used to stand for American Association of Retired Persons, but is now chiefly a lobbying organization that doesn’t always endorse what is best for retired persons and goes by the initialism AARP.

  3. If an 89 year-old white millionaire can’t tell us what is and isn’t racist, who can?

  4. Perhaps they should take any Government subsidy from Charter schools and put it back into public schools. BUT! I do believe in exam schools where you must have to take a test and have a certain academic level to enter. This gives academically advanced kids a chance to excel. We will need these kids in the future to subsidize the kids who will be unable to support themselves as OVER 1/2 our population needs subsidy now and we are importing poverty at an alarming rate!

  5. Charter schools have depleted the resources that public schools receive. They are run like a business, where profit is the motivator. I know of one charter school in Tucson where three family members are the administrators and receive the bulk of the money available for salaries.

  6. For the record: some charters are non-profits. Some of the non-profits seem to be run in some respects like for-profits. It’s a complicated scene to analyze, but it is not true that all charters are run for profit. The policy problem is not to eliminate a whole category of schools, some of which are responsible and some not, but to find ways to regulate and oversee them that ensure they are all required by the state to be responsible. (Good luck with that in Arizona, which, under current leadership, does not seem to believe the state should have any role in regulation or enforcement, unless of course it’s to ban books and curricula in TUSD.)

    Hey, David: Wonder if the NAACP might make a statement against public district administrators who get tricked by ALEC-affiliated state legislators into eliminating some of the things in public districts that have in the past made them superior to charters and privates (requirements for credentialed staff, no outsourced labor contracts, etc.) Such a statement would be helpful to us in Tucson, don’t you think?

  7. Linda that is just not true.

    The misleading narrative created around charter schools is that they take resources and high achieving students away from traditional public schools.

    The more honest one is that they give low-income families some measure of decision-making power instead of having to settle for a system that ignores their interests time and time again.

    Most parents see this clearly, based on the findings of our national poll, and low-income parents are most likely to embrace the advantage of choice in the form of charters.

    http://educationpost.org/charter-schools-arent-taking-money-from-traditional-schools-and-parents-know-it/

    The problems will never be fixed if you continue to deny what it actually is. That’s what you must help decide.

  8. Voting against their own best interests, which is what minorities often do, because the liberals convince them it is safer to stay on the liberal plantation.

  9. I want minorities educated and motivated to open businesses. be coming successful hiring more Americans. Not sitting home waiting for the check to come from a government that confiscated it from working class people, or the wealthy. Give them pride of ownership. Crime would drop dramatically and they would see Police officers protecting their businesses, while they rested up for the next day of work.

    That’s what America was before public education was hijacked and minorities were reshackled by Democrats.

  10. Sorry Dave, that’s what education was when liberals were in charge (1930’s – 70’s). It’s been hijacked, along with every thing else by the conservatives in the last few decades. The far right runs at least 80% of the country now. They have most of the the state legislatures, governorships and are writing new law at a rapid pace. While the federal govt passed 200 laws, most of no consequence, the states passed over 25,000. Look at what Ducey did to our public college system here in AZ in just his first 36 hours.

  12. Thank you, Mr. Safier: for-profit and privately managed charters too often hide behind the stories of legitimate, open and honestly elected boards. The shysters, led by greedy, sanctimonious grifter millionaires like Steve Yarbrough, Debbie Leasko and Sylvia Allen love to confuse the public with shady stories of “charter successes”, which they use to dishonestly paint with a broad brush, a narrative of school-choice triumphs. They are liars. What they detest is open democracy and public oversight of tax dollars.

  13. I’m glad to see that you actually detest liars. Can I tell you a little about Hillary Clinton?

  15. I don’t doubt that some charter schools — and those who profit from them — are irresponsible. However, there are responsible, well-managed institutions in the charter sector as well.

    This is an excellent charter school in Tucson:
    http://www.hermosaschool.org/About.html

    The broad black brush used by those pitching the anti-charter party line is no more useful in painting a scene that reflects REALITY than the broad white-wash brush used by charter and school-choice operatives.

    The NAACP is to be commended in raising concerns about these issues: “the schools’ boards are generally appointed, not elected; many use harsh disciplinary measures; and government oversight of charters is too weak.” All of those concerns are very valid. But to support ” a moratorium on the proliferation of privately managed charter schools” rather than to recommend an immediate push for improved oversight of existing charters and approval of new charters only when better, more enforceable standards for charter operation are in place is not the right solution.

    (While we’re at it, let’s admit that in the negligent state of Arizona, improved fiscal oversight of public school districts is needed as well.)

  17. Debra- your source is very questionable, a pro-charter website: “We believe that education is not one-size-fits-all and that every family deserves to choose from a range of schools to find the right fit for their children, including high quality charter schools.”

    The facts are that charters do take away money from public schools, especially here in AZ where the laws and regulations are very pro-charter. Funding is per pupil and based on current year enrollment. Therefore, if a public school loses kids to a charter, their funding is decreased. Alone, this should not be a big issue, but coupled with the relaxed requirements charters receive, can greatly impact public schools. Charters are not required to provide transportation, certified teachers or special education services that public schools are. Amazingly, these extra requirements of public schools are not free. Charters are anything but “inclusive”, with many students being “pushed out” for everything from low test scores to special education needs. Public schools take ALL children.

  18. The Charter Schools take resources away from public schools blah blah blah
    The public schools have to take everyone blah blah blah

    Why don’t you just admit that you do not want to give poor and minority students a chance to get off the plantation.

  19. I think you hit the head on the nail lc69. If enrollment staffing needs decrease. They only lose money they don’t have a right to, because parents have been allowed to exercise some decisions regarding their child’s education. Why does the left continue to try to keep these kids locked up? It wouldn’t be brainwashing would it?

    “Teachers, leave these kids alone.”

  21. Thanks Once. I gleaned this from your link:

    In other words, minority kids from the same neighborhood, going to school in classes across the hall from each other, or on different floors, are scoring far above average and far below average on the same tests.

    If black success was considered half as newsworthy as black failures, such facts would be headline news — and people who have the real interests of black and other minority students at heart would be asking, “Wow! How can we get more kids into these charter schools?”

    “The truth shall set you free!”

    This problem begs for vouchers for charters, private, and parochial. Give them the same funding as public schools and let’s see where the parents take their children. The longer I listen to this problem the more I think it is the public process that has rotted from the head.

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