I sat in on some of Councilmember Isaiah Thomas’s hearing on whether Black-owned and Black-founded charter schools are being discriminated against by the School District of Philadelphia. I’m not so sure about that.
Here’s something you might not know about me.
Before I started covering politics, I was covering education. During the time I was writing about schools, I was covering such things as the rollout of No Child Left Behind, the Commonwealth’s educational standards and the education consultants that got paid really well to create them and the creation of charter schools.
Part of the reason I stopped covering education was because I looked at the educators, who are at the mercy of politicians at a budgetary and policy level, and the politicians, who know just enough about education to be dangerous, and decided that I needed to take what I know about education into the political space.
I thought about that as I watched parts of City Council’s Education Committee on Wednesday. Operators of Black-owned and Black-founded charter schools came to the committee to testify about what they see as biases in the School District of Philadelphia’s Charter School office.
A new report issued to the school board shows that the district might need to be more transparent when it comes to closing charter schools and have more consistent standards for closure.
(For those of you playing at home, this is why State Sen. Anthony Williams and School Board President Reginald Streeter got into it at a recent school board meeting.)
Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not at all out of the realm of possibility that the School District might not have been fair to Black owned and founded charters. Being unfair to Black folks is as American as apple pie.
But before you get me singing the racism song, I’m going to need more information. And it’s information you’re probably not going to want to give me.
For example, I want to know what the CEOs at the schools that were closed make each year. Some of the paychecks that charter school CEOs are getting are really close to the kind of money that gets you a mansion on the Main Line.
Two, I’d like to see what your curriculum looks like. The whole idea behind charter schools, or at least what we’ve been being told for decades as the whole idea behind charter schools, is to engage in creating curriculum to be used for everyone. I can’t think of the last time I saw that.
And third, I want to see your test scores. If your scores are good and they still want to close you, I’ll get on the bandwagon too.
(I’ll be nice enough not to say how it might be considered a little nervy for these folks to demand transparency from the school district when one of your schools, Mathematics, Civics and Sciences Charter School, voted to close itself behind closed doors.)
I say this because calling something anti-Black or saying that you’re being discriminated against when you’re not giving students what they need isn’t good. Especially since the kids you’re allegedly advocating for have enough going against them in the first place.
If you’ve got a beef with school district policy on charters, fine. But don’t bring race into it unless you’ve got the goods that say it belongs there.
Our reporters sit through hours of city council meetings, dig through piles of documents, and ask tough questions other media overlook. Because we’re committed to addressing Philadelphia’s poverty crisis — and challenging those who sustain it. If you think this work is important too, please support our journalism.
We’re counting on readers like you.
