Albany charter schools: "a second school system that is almost entirely segregated."

[Hannah Bell]

Albany's charter schools have created a second school system that is almost entirely segregated.

Virtually all of the schools' students -- 96 percent -- are black or Hispanic, according to a Times Union analysis of data from the 2008-09 school year, the most recent available. Achievement Academy Charter School had only one white student and Albany Preparatory Charter School enrolled just 16 white students, the highest number of any charter school in the city.

The privately run schools are funded by the Albany City School District, where the minority enrollment has been steadily increasing. According to the latest available figures, 80 percent of the district students are minorities.

Charter supporters say parents enroll their children by choice and that district schools are often just as segregated because of the racial make-up in the neighborhoods where they are located.

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/The-choice-to-be-apart-645791.php

[EFerrari]

1. Albany is 60+% white. How do the schools wind up 80% minority?

:wtf:

[Hannah Bell]

2. don't know. maybe someone from there can explain,

[MattBaggins]

5. Whites don't apply.

[blondeatlast]

8. Why don't they? nt

[Gaedel]

6. In the northeast....

A significant percentage of the population is Roman Catholic and tend to send their children to parochial schools.

While I do not know Albany specifically, the white population could also tend to be older with grown children, more wealthy (private schools), and more Catholic (parochial schools).

[KamaAina]

14. Many white parents probably send their kids to private school

quite often to Catholic school. This is commonplace throughout the Northeast. In New Haven, for instance, white families treat the cost of Catholic school tuition as part of the cost of living in the city as opposed to the suburbs. Like higher city taxes, it's seen as a tradeoff for the lower home prices in the cities.

[EFerrari]

16. School segregation is a really complicated topic.

Come to think of it, all of my cousins went to Catholic school when we lived in San Francisco but I thought it was because we were all Catholic.

Then, when our families fanned out to the new, South Bay suburbs in the mid 60s, we went to public schools. Of course, there were no people of color in those white only suburbs, or we were the people of color but not 'too much' of it. Pre Mendez v. Westminster School in 1946 which outlawed the separate school system for "Mexican" kids, we would have flown right under the radar with Anglo last names and light sin.

"Cupertino schools" was code used in real estate listings. I thought it meant good schools but apparently it also meant, white schools. My mother tells me most of this went right over her head until she went to work as a real estate agent in Sunnyvale and her manager told her she couldn't sell to "colored people" west of 101.

[madrchsod]

3. wow..i always thought it was going to be separate and unequal

but dam..turning back the clock during the obama`s presidency. there`s more than a few people who are turning over in thier graves.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. I lived in Albany for a number of years (not as a student)

It is one of the most segregated cities I've ever seen. You know down to the block level when you're entering neighborhoods that are almost 100% African American. Moreover, the way they run the public schools there reflects this segregation, even in Albany High School, which is supposed to collect all the kids from the city. Albany High has an honors program - nearly 100% white - that effectively segregates the white middle and upper-middle class students from the rest of the student population. The specialized high schools in NYC do similar work; what's weird about Albany High is that it happens in the same building (though admittedly, the school is massive).

[blondeatlast]

7. Charter schools here in Phoenix tend to overwhelmingly attract

Hisapnic and African American students--even in more affluent areas.

It seems disingenuous to me that the parents send them to charter schools (for which the vouchers rarely pay the entire tuition) and reject public schools. My son is mixed race; I wouldn't dream of sending him to a private or charter school.

Does anyone understand the appeal?

[msanthrope]

9. Because the public school system is so bad.....

or is perceived to be.

There's a promise of an effective education in charter schools, that is not present, currently, in public schools.

I've referenced this article before---and although it's been dismissed here as written by Nat Hentoff, it does capture the tension between Black parents and unions..and the rise of charter schools. In fact, the entire movie, Waiting for Superman, is about this feeling, and the resultant support given to charter schools.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-06-01/news/black-parents-vs-the-teachers-union/

You may not agree with what Hentoff and others think, but I think it noteworthy that the pro-charter movement in many urban areas is supported by racial minorities.

[EFerrari]

10. Probably marketed to minority parents as better for their kids

and minority parents are susceptible because education has been seen as one of the few roads "out" of discrimination for their children.

[blondeatlast]

13. That's certainly the case around here. It's a pity, because some of Phoenix's

best schools are in low-income, heavily minority neighborhoods--and it is largely because great teachers--who happen to be NEA and AFT--choose to go where they are most needed.

As an ex-teacher myself, I know that no one goes into the profession for the money.

[Xithras]

11. The appeal in poor areas often has nothing to do with the quality of the education.

It's not always about education. My wife teaches in a very poor, immigrant heavy area where a significant portion of the population sends their kids to charter school. My mother-in-law was a teacher in Oakland up until last year, and watched many of her best students transfer into charter schools.

Their parents concern isn't teacher quality, it's crime and gangs. Public schools are required to accept, and keep accepting, youth who engage in bullying, participate in gangs, or deal drugs. These kids are often disruptive in class, and can make life hell for their kids at other times of the day.

Charter schools don't generally get these kinds of kids (charter enrollment requires parental time and involvement, which are usually lacking in homes where drug and gang behaviors are a problem). When they do occasionally get enrolled in charter schools, those schools have a lot more leeway to kick them out if they try to continue with their disruptive behavior.

It's not always about academics. Sometimes it's just security.

[blondeatlast]

12. Interesting--I can see the mentality in Phoenix. I'm a fierce public ed advocate,

but I do see an unwillingness in the system to deal with this issue, even at my son's solidly middle-class school, where repeat offenders are allowed to return. OTOH, there's a lack of funds; it's all the school can do to keep arts, music, and PE going.

For a while, when my son was being bullied, I considered homeschooling, so I can see that being a major issue.

[EFerrari]

15. That's a good point and they go together, don't they. n/t