TO THE EDITOR:
The editorial board’s championing of Senate Bill 8 disappoints me. The board not only appears to lack understanding of North Carolina schools, but its reasoning also is faulty.
Charter schools take state funds, combine them with private investments and reduced community control, and produce about the same results as traditional schools. In 2009-10, roughly the same number of North Carolina’s 100 charters failed to meet basic standards set by No Child Left Behind as earned a designation of highest achievement. For every charter school that looks like a KIPP Academy, there’s another that’s failing students.
Charter schools won’t diversify UNC. Investment in charters reduces resources in other schools. Many charter schools aren’t equipped to educate the neediest students, leaving them in underfunded traditional schools. And study after study shows that charter schools are more likely than traditional schools to be racially segregated.
The board also failed to note an important provision of S8: Charter schools will no longer be required to be demographically representative of their community. Eliminating this requirement will result in even greater re-segregation.
In supporting this bill, the board ignored the real outcomes of North Carolina’s charter schools and championed a law that will harm students, this university and the state.
Anna Peterson
Vice President
UNC Roosevelt Institute
