Charter choices resegregate schools, advocates say
NEWARK, Del. -- Charter schools shouldn't be able to give enrollment preference to students who live within five miles of their campus because doing so is leading to resegregation, some lawmakers and advocates argue.
If a charter school has more applicants than seats, Delaware law currently allows charters to give preference to students who live within five miles of their building, as long as they include that preference in their charter.
The only charter that currently uses that preference is Newark Charter School , which has almost 2,000 students in grades K-10 and is expanding into a full K-12 school. Eastside Charter and the Delaware Met have approval to do so in their charter, but have not yet exercised it because they have not had more applicants than available seats.
Rep. John Kowalko , D-Newark, says Newark Charter's five-mile radius preference leads to de facto segregation because it is situated in a mostly white, more affluent area of town. Demand for seats in the school is so high — its test scores among the best in the state — that it routinely has lengthy wait-lists which, Kowalko argues, makes it all but impossible for a black, low-income student from Wilmington to get in.
"Newark Charter's a good school and it's not going anywhere," Kowalko said. "But we have to assure, because it is a school funded with public money, that there is equal access for every student."
More than 65 percent of Newark Charter's students are white, while only about 11 percent are black, according to figures from the Department of Education. Only 7.2 percent of its students are low-income, and only 5.6 percent are special education.
Contrast that with the whole state of Delaware, in which only 46 percent of students are white and 31 percent are black, or the Christina School District, in which the school is housed, which is only 31 percent white and 39 percent black.
Statewide, 35 percent of kids are low-income, five times the percentage of Newark Charter. In Christina, 41 percent of students are low-income, almost six times as many.
Kowalko has proposed House Bill 83, which would eliminate charters' ability to give preference to nearby families. He has long criticized the five-mile radius provision, and is a frequent charter school critic.
Greg Meece, the director of Newark Charter, says he's "confused" as to why lawmakers would want to prevent charters from having a geographical preference when traditional schools have feeder patterns that are often smaller than five miles.
"The legislature listed this preference in order to keep communities together in order to encourage parent involvement in their schools and to mirror what is done in traditional schools," Meece said.
Meece argues it doesn't make sense to compare Newark Charter's student population to Christina's because the two are completely different. Christina's schools include many urban Wilmington students in addition to the Newark suburbs in which the charter is located.
"I think you look at the community our school was created to serve, we reflect that community very well," Meece said.
The debate over the five-mile radius preference fits into a larger discussion of whether charters are "re-segregating" Delaware schools by screening out low-income and minority students.
In December, the Delaware branch of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education in which they said more than three-quarters of all charters were "racially identifiable" as either mostly white or mostly minority schools.
"My thinking is that, although I don't think the five-mile radius is the most significant problem with the charter school law that is causing resegregation, I still think this is a good idea," said Kathleen MacRae, executive director of the ACLU Delaware.
MacRae said other enrollment preferences, like admissions tests or GPA requirements, are also causing re-segregation and won't be changed by Kowalko's bill.Charter choices resegregate schools, advocates say:
