Friday, January 30, 2015

Chelsi P. Henry — School Choice Empowers Students of Color

via The Root:

This week marks National School Choice Week: Communities across the nation are celebrating the successes of school choice, voucher programs, tax-credit scholarships and charter schools. Unfortunately, over the past six years, the Obama administration, Democrats and teachers unions have fought against parents’ right to choose the best education for their child. This, even as 52 percent of Congressional Black Caucus members have, at one time or another, sent their children to private schools.

Which begs the question: How is it that students of color—particularly black students—have a 68 percent graduation rate, versus 85 percent for white students, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education? The statistics say to me that education is the civil rights issue of my generation.