The Black Alliance for Educational Options has laid out a vision for the future that challenges America to devote as much attention to private and charter schools as to traditional public schools.
Its message could not be more timely for New York, in all three areas.
- Traditional public schools. Start with the basic: New York has no effective mechanism for identifying bad teachers and getting them out of the classroom. This might explain why only 15 percent of our state’s African-American students test proficient in math and reading.
- Charter public schools. We know black children do better at charters, and the wait list in Gotham is 50,000 long. The good news is that Albany squelched Mayor de Blasio’s attempt to strangle charters by denying them space. The bad news is the solution created a two-tier system that leaves upstate charter schools out in the cold. Don’t Buffalo charter kids deserve the same deal as those in New York City?
LaSalle is an independent, all-male Catholic high school. Of 325 students, 85 percent are Hispanic or black. While more than 40 percent arrive at LaSalle with math and reading skills below grade level, almost all end up graduating and going on to college.
This Thursday morning, LaSalle Academy on the Lower East Side will hold a rally urging Cuomo to do the right thing.
BAEO is right: If an education is truly a civil right, we need to support all schools where kids are actually learning.