Reply to If DC public charters are created to help the underprivileged is it bad to

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][i]If you want a charter, don’t lie to yourself about choosing it’s program when you are really choosing its demographics.[/i]

They are not separable. It's incredibly difficult to teach, and simultaneously teaching students who vary widely in their current academic achievement is darn near impossible. If there's a school with lots of poor kids who are way above grade level academically, I'd be happy to send my kids there. But we chose a charter school with high achievement and few poor kids, and I understand that the school's ability to have the program they do is made possible by the student demographics. Those demographics are much richer and whiter than DC as a whole, but still much more racially and economically diverse than many area suburbs.[/quote]

Yeah -- the demographics have a material impact on the school atmosphere, environment, and outcomes. So it makes perfect sense for a family, of any race/SES, to consider demographics when selecting a school.  For example, I'm black and would avoid sending my children to a school that is demograpically-dominated (+75%+) by poor black children and no middle-class blacks. And yes, that includes KIPP.  That kind of situation just doesn't work out well for UMC black kids (especially boys) for a whole host of reasons that should be obvious, but probably aren't to some.  Now, that sort of factoring may have different implications when practiced by white (or non-black) folks, but I'm not going to scrutinize the choices of other people when I'm essentially compelled to make the same or similar choices, [i]even if [/i]I'm making those choices for different reasons, or out of different concerns.

Of course, that's the crux of systematic racism, isn't it? Doing what I believe to be best/necessary for my [i]black[/i] children operates to further entrench racial inequality, at least to some degree. [/quote]

But the problem comes when UMC white folks assume schools’ performance and environment based on those demographics. Not all, but many DCPS schools with &lt;10% white kids are safe and nurturing environments, even in upper elementary. We’re at one and are having many few behavioral issues in mid elementary than friends in some of the charters. Not to say your black children would have the same experience as my kids, but my kids’ experience is relevant to many of the folks that aren’t even considering non-charters.[/quote]
Which school I want to send my black child there [/quote]

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