The NAACP has approved a resolution calling for an end to the expansion of privately run charter schools. They maintain that charter schools are publicly funded but do not serve the needs of the public, and often further disadvantage poor communities in which they are built.
The organization argues that charter schools do not serve the communities in which they are built, but the students who can afford to be sent there. They still get a large amount of their funding from taxes, through vouchers and other programs that allow wealthy people to send their kids to whichever schools they want, while poor families are left to use the public school systems to which they have access. This, the NAACP argues, reinforces segregation, as charter schools are often out of reach of the black and brown communities from which they draw much of their funding.
Another significant problem addressed by the NAACP resolution is that there is evidence that charter schools often engage in disproportionately high levels of punitive and exclusionary discipline for students of color.
Charter schools often have boards consisting of very wealthy individuals who do not represent the vast majority of people in the communities where these schools are located. These people are not elected, so they are not really beholden to the people and don’t have to worry about doing right by the community. The NAACP and several other organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union seem to view charter schools as essentially a privatization of education, which results in profits for some but a decrease in the quality of education for many.
The NAACP has been critical of charter programs in the past, but this is the strongest stance that they have taken so far. The organization has yet to adopt the measure, as that requires a subsequent vote by the groups national board, but it is clear that the NAACP has taken a stance against what they see as an unfair system that promotes segregation and damages communities while foisting the bill for this on taxpayers who don’t have access to the schools in question.
