Dive Brief:
- Claims filed in New Orleans, Chicago, and Newark that allege minority groups are unfairly targeted for school closures and "turnarounds" are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
- All three of the complaints were filed by the Journey for Justice Alliance on behalf of the African-American families in the affected communities.
- Since charter boards are appointed rather than elected, the complaint argues that minority communities are purposely being picked off and silenced, as appointed boards are seen as being less accountable for how federal funds are being used.
Dive Insight:
The group argues that the rampant closing of traditional public schools violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act since this sort of reform effort disproportionately affects minority communities. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act attempts to stop discrimination by government agencies that receive federal funds. And the Justice Alliance feels that black and Hispanic communities are being targeted, especially since it's mainly minority communities that are seeing schools closing and being replaced by charter efforts.
According to the Washington Post's Valerie Strauss, the three focus cities have had some of the most obvious reforms and closing. "In Chicago alone, nearly 160 neighborhood public schools have been closed, consolidated, phased out or 'turned around' in the past 15 years," she writes. "In New Orleans, the Recovery School District is now entirely made up of charter schools, and in Newark, plans to close at least a quarter of the city’s public schools and increase the number charter schools were just some of the reasons that Ras Baraka was elected mayor this year on an anti-school reform platform."
Strauss also brings up the point that as the U.S. Department of Education investigates the potential racial discrimination of school closings and charter schools, it also last week allocated $39.7 million for charter school expansion grants.