Black children being earmarked for segregated charter schools

[Paris E. Tompkins]

In a recent article appearing in the Sacramento Bee, dated October 10, 2010, a proposal to remove black children from traditional integrated schools and place them in segregated charter schools has been suggested. This proposal has been made by a black person, Margaret Fortune, who has operated a similar school in Sacramento.

Ms. Fortune suggests that up to 5,000 black children, who are also considered low-income, and beginning with K thru 3rd graders, would benefit from receiving an education in a school set apart from their peers of the same age. To me, this is absurd as this nation has and continues to fight long and hard to diminish and extinguish the ugliness of segregation in all of its stigmatizing forms, in all systems of our society.

To consider returning to the dysfunctional method of segregation in our system of education is not only frightful but downright bizarre. Poor, black children already suffer from two strikes against them. To put them in a situation which sets them apart will not only affect their self-esteem, but may also cause them to suffer the pain of being stigmatized for not attending an integrated school with other children who are different from them.

A great part of one’s education, particularly as access to the global community is opening up to anyone who may chose to explore it, is to be socialized to understand, tolerate and accept the differences between us. How can that be accomplished when one begins their educational experience with only faces of one’s own kind? How can one perceive a different reflection of how the world is made up if one only sees one image, the same as oneself ?

I can understand the intent of providing a more intense educational experience for children, but the effort should be open to all children, not focused on any particular ethnic group. As for the children being low-income, there are low-income children in every ethnic group who need and require a quality education. For a black person to focus this attempt to obtain funding for charter schools by selling out black children is shameful.

If tax-payer money is used to fund charter schools, representative children from every group should be represented. Placing black children in segregated schools is a backward move and should not be considered as being in the best interest of those children.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/10/3093039/former-st-hope-leader-begi...

[TheArtiste Hassan]

Instead of taking sides with this issue (because ii don't know the full story), ii will make a statement concerning education of our youth. Whether charter, public, integrated or segregated, our youth need an extremely upgraded version of education. A student may or may not need to be integrated to learn but they do need proper education from an African Centered and a world standard which will help them to balance themselves. This education need to start with THE TEACHING OF KARMA, MEDITATION, PHYSICAL EXERCISE AND THE ART OF HOW TO THINK. All education systems in America (except a few private schools) are inferior and gross inadequacies exist according to global standards.

[Paris E. Tompkins]

I agree that children, especially black children, are sorely lacking in learning about their heritage. We have for too long in this country focused on the primary segment of our society while black children have floundered. The time has come for recognition that there are needs which haven't been addressed, and I believe that education should also provide opportunities in socialization...how to get along with others. If children are segregated because of their color and economic status, they may feel that they are unlike the rest of society and the stigma that goes along with that feeling of being different could affect them for life. Many people, especially black males, who grew up under Jim Crow and segregation still carry the scars of that experience. It would be cruel and wrong to repeat that behavior on a new generation.

[Paris E. Tompkins]

On Tuesday, February 3, the Sacramento County Board of Education approved the first 5 of 10 charter schools to be located in Sacramento, California, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee. This news brings mixed emotions as I rejoice at the thought of black children getting a better quality education, but it also tears me apart to think of the circumstances under which this "gift" is being presented. Perhaps my sense of equity is skewed by my age and the circumstances under which I have lived during my time, i.e. Jim Crow laws as a child; civil rights violations as a youth; discrimination as an adult and bias as a senior citizen. But the thought of segregated schools was, and remains, appalling to me…regardless of the reasons or supposed “benefits” to black children, or any child.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/02/03/3373521/charter.html