{"id":475907,"date":"2010-03-26T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T15:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16711557.post-7963319587542483717"},"modified":"2010-03-26T11:51:11","modified_gmt":"2010-03-26T15:51:11","slug":"charter-schools-the-white-mans-panacea-for-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/475907","title":{"rendered":"Charter Schools: The White Man’s Panacea For Education"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Police Occupying School in New Orleans While Students Suffer From Neglect in the Aftermath of Katrina<\/a>
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire Photo File<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Charter Schools: The White Man\u2019s Panacea for Education<\/p>\n

March 25, 2010
By Solomon Comissiong<\/p>\n

The illusion that white liberals and conservatives seldom find common ground is farcical. It is a deceptively dangerous illusion that far too many believe in. It is important to understand that the perceived chasm that separates white people politically is, in all actuality, very small in regards to a number of social issues. When you can clearly indentify your foes as well as your friends, it makes all
ensuing battles that much easier.<\/p>\n

Most white liberals(noticeably different from a truly progressive
oriented white person), as with white conservatives, have very little
intention to progressively work towards eradicating the root causes of
social issues that plague most black communities in America. It is
extremely important for people of color to understand this very
important fact—white liberals will never seek on their own to
destroy institutional racism and white supremacy. It should be obvious that white conservatives will not as well, but then again they never claim to give a damn about black people. They are what they are, whether you like it or not.<\/p>\n

White liberals, on the other hand, love to profess how liberal they
are on \u201ccivil rights\u201d issues, but when it comes to taking an
aggressive approach towards things like institutional racism, or even
the military industrial complex, they are silent. And as the Bard has
written, “Silence speaks consent.\u201d If they were surgeons their
solution to fixing a six inch gash in your arm would be to give you a
band-aid rather than disinfecting the wound, dressing it, and
sufficiently wrapping it.<\/p>\n

So when it comes to \u201ccomplex\u201d issues that black and brown youth face, failing schools for instance, their approach is to provide a little
patchwork here and a little patchwork there. Their approach is never
to admit that if these schools were white they would never be allowed
to fail in such a manner as many schools of color are failing, largely
based on the fact that they are under-supported and socially
neglected.<\/p>\n

Neither liberals nor conservatives would not suggest some of the same \u201cremedies\u201d, to predominately white schools, that they often recommend to black and brown schools. And yes, with the re-segregation of today\u2019s school systems, which are much like those of the 1960s, in terms of racial makeup, we can refer to them as black, brown or white.<\/p>\n

As a matter of fact, it is very important that we do this since a
great many black and brown schools do not even receive half of the
governmental support and funding as do many of their white
counterparts.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Kozol, author of The Shame of a Nation and Savage
Inequalities (and a relatively progressive white man), has spent much of his career outlining the institutionally racist nature of America\u2019s failing public school system within both books. Failing to delineate the racial makeup of these predominately black and brown schools, which are systemically neglected by the US government, only confuses the issues.<\/p>\n

Failing to identify the racial disparities prevents us from properly
identifying the racist and white supremacist roots in these problems.
And just like failing to identify the root causes of any physical
malady will prevent a physician from properly diagnosing the sickness of a patient and therefore subsequently leading toward a recovery, so too is the case for most social issues. The institutionally unequal disparities between black schools and white schools are logically no different.<\/p>\n

On March 19, 2010 I witnessed an \u201cinteresting\u201d debate surrounding
education and charter schools on the vastly mainstream oriented MSNBC morning program, \u201cMorning Joe\u201d. The last 20 minutes of the program featured New York State Senator Bill Perkins ((D) 30th Senate District). Bill Perkins, jurisdiction (within Harlem) is predominately black, as is he. He was engaged in a charter school debate with the conservative blow hard host of the show, former republican congressman Joe Scarborough.<\/p>\n

Perkins was arguing to the point that Charter Schools (which are
mostly publicly funded but privately run) were not the answer towards
adequately improving educational standards within Harlem, as well as in the rest America\u2019s communities of color. The always smug and
overtly disingenuous Scarborough continually claimed that charter
schools were the best answer for black communities to get the
education they deserve (we can only imagine what the means). He tried to back up his claims up by selectively picking pieces out of a recent Stanford study on the effectiveness of charter schools.<\/p>\n

When Perkins pointed out that the same Stanford study contradicted his (Scarborough\u2019s) assertion that charter schools were the panacea to solving the education problem, Scarborough rudely spoke over him. The Stanford study clearly stated charter schools, in general, do not out perform public schools. Almost half of all charter school kids perform at the same level as children enrolled in public schools. And close to 40 percent (37 percent) do worse than public school kids.<\/p>\n

These are important facts that Joe Scarborough conveniently omitted
from his on-air baseless diatribe. Scarborough then, in a clear act of
desperation, started to reference people like John Legend and Al
Sharpton as individuals who thought that charter schools were a good idea. This was a feeble and asinine way of trying to prove his point. When did they become experts on public education? That crap may work on legions of corporate media\u2019s most faithful viewers but not on the author. I am no fan of corporate \u201cnews\u2019 nor am I a fan of programs like \u201cMorning Joe\u201d. Using the playground debate tactics that Scarborough employed he might as well have arbitrarily thrown a couple more random black luminaries to prove his specious argument.<\/p>\n

Al Sharpton has clearly shown his willingness to climb into bed with
the likes of Arne Duncan (Secretary of Education) and Newt Gingrich
(former rightwing congressman) in order to curry favor with Obama and his misguided charter school agenda. One can only imagine what deals were struck behind closed doors to bring that motley crew together. The New York state senator (Perkins) made the most profound statement on \u201cMorning Joe\u201d when he alluded to the fact that white people, in general, are not willing to prescribe charter schools to their own children in their own communities.<\/p>\n

This was a statement to which Joe Scarborough had no clear rebuttal. He had no significant response because it all boils down to the fact that Joe Scarborough could not give a damn about black youth in America\u2019s socially neglected communities. He could not give a damn about the very real and predatory \u201cschool to prison pipeline\u201d strategically set up in many predominately black and brown schools.<\/p>\n

Scarborough could not give a damn about black boys that are routinely (and unjustly) profiled and harassed by the police. And he certainly could not give a damn about the prison industrial complex which is destroying black families and communities! All of the aforementioned are irrefutably institutionally racist and have direct and indirect impacts on schools in black and brown communities.<\/p>\n

He (Scarborough) pushes charter schools for the same reason Arne
Duncan (who was appointed by Barak Obama) does; they represent the privatization of public schools as we know it. This is where the
neoliberal agenda romantically converges with the neoconservative
agenda regarding education. While serving as the CEO of Chicago\u2019s
public school system Arne Duncan made a name for himself by turning over the control of predominately black and brown public schools to the military.<\/p>\n

This is certainly a move he would never try with predominately white
schools. Rather than to recruit the expert, experienced pedagogues of our country he fell into the historical trend of bringing on more
\u201cmuscle\u201d to control blacks and browns…not unlike the managers of
slave plantations of yore. His blueprint is to control by
dispassionate force rather than to inspire by skilled, empathetic
pedagogy.<\/p>\n

Endorsing charter schools is the easy way out instead of putting the
money and requisite resources into revamping, rebuilding, and
adequately funding public education in this country. Privatizing
American schools and excluding the masses of black and brown children is simply another way of keeping the institutionally racist status quo in tact.<\/p>\n

The measures of adequately funding schools are only viable in white
\u201cwell to do\u201d communities where property taxes and capitalist values
play a major role in public school funding, never mind that property
tax financing of schools is one of the great injustices hovering over
this topic of public education. If this country had even an once of
equity, when it came to all children, it would make sure that all
public schools, regardless of where they were located, would get equal funding and support.<\/p>\n

However, since America is firmly situated on a foundation of
capitalism, social injustice and racism; the U.S. will continue to
place superficial \u201cband-aids\u201d on the deep wounds of an institutionally
racist public educational system that plagues black and brown
communities.<\/p>\n

The dreams of Brown v. Board of Education are just that, dreams.
Separate and unequal still rule the day within America\u2019s failing
public school system. Failed policies such as No Child Left Behind and unqualified government officials (Arne Duncan who has never spent a minute as a classroom teacher) are continually given the reigns to decide the future of millions of youth of color. Even Diane Ravitch, a former George HW Bush Assistant Secretary of Education, explicitly states the failings of NCLB and the myths of charter schools in her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System.<\/p>\n

She has had an epiphany late in life, but an epiphany nonetheless.
Public schools in America need to be approached in a radically
different manner that involves more emphasis placed into critical
thought as well as comprehension, and not just regurgitation of
material that is forced down students\u2019 throats in order to pass
statewide standardized tests.<\/p>\n

An educational system that espouses memorization without comprehension and rote learning without critical thinking only produces robots that will continue to accept whatever it placed before them rather than to question, consider and decide for themselves. But perhaps that is the intent of millennium public education. Robotic thinkers will not challenge and actively resist that same system that makes them robotic in the first place.<\/p>\n

The curriculum in public schools needs to be revamped and made more culturally relevant, especially in communities of color but likewise among their white counterparts lest millennium white students continue being culturally disadvantaged. And yes, more money needs to be placed into these schools. Its funny that liberal and conservative white politicians will claim that you cannot simply throw money into education and expect it to magically pay off, however when it comes to placing their children in expensive private schools or well funded public schools they have no issue with that.<\/p>\n

These disingenuous cretins systemically throw trillions of dollars
into military aggression that ultimately kills people, however, when
it comes to investing in the lives of millions of youth, they can\u2019t
seem to find any good reason to do so. And now they have a brown
skinned man in the White House willing to do their bidding.<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s commitment, like his dim witted predecessor (Bush), is to his military expenditure, Wall Street and his corporate handlers.
Unfortunately far too many of us cannot see through the fa\u00e7ade. The
Change You Can Believe In campaign has quickly become The Beliefs You Can Change administration.<\/p>\n

Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News radio program
(http:\/\/www.blogtalkradio.com\/Your-World-News). He may be reached at: sunderland77@hotmail.com.
<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police Occupying School in New Orleans While Students Suffer From Neglect in the Aftermath of KatrinaOriginally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire Photo File Charter Schools: The White Man\u2019s Panacea for Education March 25, 2010By Solomon Comissiong The illusion that white liberals and conservatives seldom find common ground is farcical. It is a deceptively dangerous illusion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-475907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}