Deciphering the Politics of Charter Schools

My friends at the Columbia Journalism School,who stayed on after graduation in May to work on this year’s News 21 project on charter schools in America, are finishing up their reporting from all over America. And the things they found are somewhat disconcerting and gladsome at the same time.

This story, by Maura Walz, documents how minority ethnic groups are using the charter school system to create schools, catering to their cultural norms. Walz’s story profiles a predominantly Arab-American school in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota.

The concern is that such segmentation in schools could potentially threaten the fabric of American society because children aren’t schooled in the ways of engaging other cultures. But there is evidence of higher academic achievement by kids from lower-income homes in such schools.

But before anybody judge the merits or demerits of such “ethnic enclaves” among charter schools, it would be useful to consider how they emerged as a response to how the American public school system has failed to meet the needs of minority groups. This relates to bigger questions on the assimilation of immigrants into American society. In particular, how many immigrant parents still view their kids being American and retaining their ethnic identities and cultures as two mutual exclusive entities.

Just as the fiasco surrounding the arrest of Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his own home in Cambridge, Mass. suggests a post-racial America is a mere pipe dream, that people still see the need for ethnic-based charter schools shows that learning how to create more space for people to retain their cultures without being seen as compromising their “American-ness”, is a continuous process that needs to be accelerated.