New report shows how school closings, charters lead to more racial segregation

Chicago school closings and the district’s expansion of “school choice” further aggravate the city’s problems with neighborhood and school racial segregation. This according to a new report from The Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance. According to the report:

Catalyst Chicago, an independent education research group, found that 40% of closed CPS schools are now privately run. However, charters have not been shown to produce the results many supporters purport. Research has failed to show that students benefit more from charter schools as opposed to a quality neighborhood schools; and despite being funded by public money , charter schools are less accountable and more selective than public schools. 

The report makes the case that the mayor's policy of mass school closings, nearly all in low-income, African-American neighborhoods, and their replacement with privately-run charter schools, has "exacerbated segregation."

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

 An increasing number of charter schools that serve mostly white student bodies are opening in racially diverse areas of the Twin Cities, according to a study by Institute of Metropolitan Opportunity, based at the University of Minnesota Law School.

The number of predominantly white charters in the suburbs grew by 40 percent from 2008 to 2013, the study’s authors say. As a consequence, they added, those schools are aiding “white flight” from diverse suburban schools in cities such as Bloomington, Apple Valley and Eden Prairie.

Another report cited by CAFHA, from the Equity and Excellence Commission notes:

“While some young Americans — most of them white and affluent — are getting a truly world-class education, those who attend schools in high poverty neighborhoods are getting an education that more closely approximates school in developing nations.”

You can't get much clearer than that.