June 10, 2014

In National Movement: New Orleans, Chicago, Newark Fighting 'Discriminatory' School Closings
By Kari Dequine Harden

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After Louisiana State Superintendent John White dismissed a federal complaint alleging abuses of the civil rights of children and families in New Orleans schools as a “joke,” and a “political farce,” the groups who filed the complaint issued a letter demanding White’s immediate resignation.

The letter, sent to White on June 4, reads: “The discriminatory effects of school closures that students of color and their families experience in New Orleans are no laughing matter. We find no humor in our school communities being dissolved, no amusement in being forced to send our children to charter schools that are unaccountable to our families, and no comedy in schoolchildren waiting outside before sunrise for school buses to take them across the city because we have no neighborhood schools left.”

Part of a national effort with similar federal complaints filed on the same day in Chicago and Newark, the New Orleans complaint was filed May 13 under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in the use of federal funds.

As New Orleans takes the stage as home to the nation’s first all-charter school district – the Recovery School District (RSD) – the privately-run publicly-funded charter schools that have replaced neighborhood schools over the past nine years have operated with astonishing autonomy and sparse accountability.

Representing two community groups, the Coalition for Community Schools and the Concerned Citizens Controlling Community Changes (C6), the federal complaint and letter to White were signed by Karran Harper Royal and Frank J. Buckley.

The letter continues: “It is with utmost seriousness that we have called for a civil rights investigation of the harmful school closure policies that have shuffled countless Black and Brown children from failing schools to other failing or near-failing schools, year after year. “

While White’s response to the complaint in a May 15 story in The Times-Picayune was filled with contempt, condescension and anti-union rhetoric bearing no relevance to the issues raised, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights wrote an open letter on May 14 to remind charter school operators of their legal obligations.

“I am writing to remind you that the Federal civil rights laws, regulations, and guidance that apply to charter schools are the same as those that apply to other public schools,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon writes in the letter. “For this reason, it is essential that charter school officials and staff be knowledgeable about Federal civil rights laws.”

The letter sent to White outlines the “harms” wrought by the RSD: the closure of more than 30 schools, children being trapped in failing schools, and closures disproportionately affecting students of color. It also describes the continued academic failure of the RSD – with a majority of its schools still ranked as failing by the state’s own standards.

“Your real allegiance is to the pro-charter, pro-privatization agenda,” Harper Royal and Buckley write to White. “It has become clear that you will lie, bribe, and turn a blind eye to discrimination to benefit this agenda.“

Also described is a landscape of discriminatory selective admissions schools – public schools that can accept and reject whoever they want, creaming the most desirable students while operating within the same grading and funding system.

While African-American students make up over 80 percent of the student population in New Orleans, only account for about 30 to 47 percent of the population at most of the high-performing schools, the letter states.

White did not respond to a request for an interview regarding the complaint or the call for his resignation, but instead issued the following response through Louisiana Department of Education spokesman Barry Landry:

“We take the success of students as seriously as any responsibility we have in the education of our kids. We take seriously the mission of raising graduation rates, increasing student performance, and ensuring all students have access to high-quality schools. We take seriously any group seriously committed to that mission. The group writing this letter is part of a national campaign that wants more to do with politics than with the success of children.”

The letter contends that based on his repeated history of dismissing protests, complaints, concerns, and “lived experiences” from the communities most affected by his policies, White is unfit for the job.

“That you would now refer to this current civil rights complaint as “a joke” further shows your disregard for the discrimination experienced by students of color and their parents,” Harper Royal and Buckley write. “We have had enough of your misguided, paternalistic policies and request your immediate resignation.”