Not All NAACP Chapters Say No to Charter Schools

The county school board on July 25 to open a public charter school in Montgomery County. The county’s first charter will open in fall 2012.

I noted in  that this first charter school will likely stand alone as the only county charter for a very long time. I simply do not believe the Crossway approval signals more charters.

So, the no more charters ought to be good news for the Montgomery County NAACP, which came out against supporting the Crossway application.

At the July 25 board meeting, the local NAACP chapter said it opposed Crossway because the national NAACP opposes public charter schools. This got me wondering, and so I went looking the NAACP policy statement that says no to all public charters. To read the no charter school resolution click here.

However, I also found another statement—issued jointly with several other national civil rights organizations the same month and year—July 2010—that supports public charter schools as “laboratories of innovation.” That statement can be found here (See pages 8 and 9.)

And then without a lot of effort, I found a few NAACP chapters actually involved in a “hands-on” efforts to open public charters. If we jump north to county schools Superintendent Josh Starr’s former school district in Stamford, CT we find that the NAACP chapter there is actively exploring opening a public charter school. To read about that effort

I guess we could argue about the degree to which Crossways represents innovation. And frankly, that is where I would rather see the county NAACP chapter take the debate.