A recent UCLA Civil Rights Project report lamented that the charter school movement is contributing to the resegregation of our public schools. It's not that charters are allowing white families to escape to exclusive enclaves (as some had feared might happen). It's that many charter schools are just as "racially isolated" as most urban public schools: all of their students are black or brown.
The charter crowd is understandably touchy about this topic; their thinking goes something like, "Hey, we've figured out how to create schools that are successful for poor minority kids and now you're saying that's a bad thing?"
I explore this issue in the latest Education Gadfly, and highlight three charter schools that are both economically and racially integrated and are getting strong results in terms of academic achievement. Creating more such schools could make both sides of this divide happy.
-Mike Petrilli
