A prominent NAACP leader is sending her child to a posh New England boarding school at the same time the civil-rights group is suing to block low-income parents from educating their kids in charter schools, The Post has learned.
Karen Boykin-Towns, who heads the group’s Brooklyn branch and serves on its national board, enrolls her daughter, Jasmine, at the bucolic, 80-acre Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, which charges up to $45,000 in annual tuition.
Her husband is Darryl Towns, the state housing commissioner and former Brooklyn state assemblyman who voted to increase the cap on charter schools last year.
Her father-in-law is veteran Brooklyn Congressman Ed Towns.
“We know you are selective about your future . . . We’re equally selective at Brewster. We want only the very best students,” the school says in its brochure.
Students there study with Apple laptops and play Frisbee on the shoreline of majestic Lake Winnipesaukee, which abuts the campus.
Boykin-Towns defended the boarding-school enrollment of her daughter in light of the NAACP suit.
“I’d simply say that as a parent, the most important job you have is to provide the best opportunities possible for your children’s education and success,” Boykin-Towns said in an e-mail response to The Post.
But infuriated charter-school parents said Towns’ personal decision concerning her child’s education exposes a breathtaking level of hypocrisy at the NAACP.
The well-to-do brass seeks the best opportunities for its kids while throwing hurdles in front of poor parents seeking an option for theirs — government-funded charters as an alternative to traditional public schools, critics charge.
“It’s beyond hypocritical; it’s crazy,” said Kathleen Kernizan, whose daughter is scheduled to attend Leadership Prep charter school in the Ocean Hill section of Brooklyn — whose proposed co-location in a building with a public school is being challenged by the NAACP.
“The NAACP is stopping my right to exercise my choice of what’s best for my daughter, and they’re fleeing the public-school system.”
The joint NAACP/United Federations suit against the city Department of Education seeks to block 15 charter schools from sharing space with traditional public schools, claiming that kids in traditional schools get fewer resources than their charter counterparts. The city denies the charge.
The suit also seeks to block the closing of 22 low-performing schools.