Goldman Praises Williams, West: challenges Richmond to get past racial politics

Goldman for Mayor - September 6th - For Immediate Release:

"I urge everyone to read Michael Paul Williams column today in the Richmond Times
Dispatch, [copied below] it is an exception article and for the sake of the children of our town, I hope the adults of the River City reflect upon it, and take it to heart."

"Let me also say that Keith West is likewise doing what a public servant should do, he is working to bring people together to help improve the educational opportunities of the children of Richmond, I know the goal of providing greater educational opportunity is shared by every other member of the School Board, so as I said when working with others to get Richmonders their right to elect their Mayor, I know that change can be hard, but when it is necessary, we need to figure out a way to get it done. There are 4000 charter schools in the country, so it has long been a mainstream idea, and in our case, an idea whose time has come for Richmond."

Mistrust of charter school may mean missed chance

Saturday, Sep 06, 2008 -

By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST

Rosa Parks, before her death, was associated with the charter schools movement.
Black parents and teachers in Topeka, Kan., are trying to establish a charter school in the same building where plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education were denied admission in 1951.
Charter schools have a track record of improving the achievement of black students in low-income urban areas, and are endorsed by none other than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"Some of the strongest advocates of the charter movement in the U.S. have been African-Americans, Native-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and so on," said Joe Nathan, director of The Center for School Change at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

So why are some black folks in our town so leery of them?

Perhaps it's because, in Richmond, past is prologue and history is often at loggerheads with harmony.

Richmond is fertile ground for conspiracy theories for no other reason than they often prove out.

The Virginia State Conference NAACP is not alone in observing that one election after the change to the mayor-at-large system in Richmond, the City Council and School Board became majority white.

Some black folks who've stood by the school district, or had no other options, bristle at the thought of those who abandoned the district or who never belonged carving out an educational island. Some opponents argue that resources provided to Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts would be put to better use systemwide.

Nathan counters that charter schools can be more egalitarian than district schools, since no admissions tests are allowed like at say, Richmond Community High. Patrick Henry would hold a lottery to determine admission.

Three of the four black members of the Richmond School Board opposed the Patrick Henry proposal Tuesday.

Board member Keith West, a charter school proponent, voted against the proposal because he said the contract governing the school was too restrictive. But instead of lawyers, this situation needs mediators.

Nathan was among the founders of the nation's first charter school in St. Paul, Minn. It opened in 1992 with fewer than 100 students. Today, more than 4,000 charter schools nationwide educate some 1.3 million students.

Nathan is quick to point out that not every charter school proposal has been a great one, and there have been abuses and misuse or theft of monies. But he urged Richmond to embrace the concept.

"We make progress when we try new things," Nathan said.

He attributes suspicion of the movement here to the bitter aftertaste of white resistance to the Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring school segregation unconstitutional.
"One of the things I witnessed in the South sometimes with African-Americans is a very strong recognition of the school choice movement of the late '50s and '60s, which was about promoting segregation and inequality," he said.

Indeed, the NAACP said in a recent statement: "There is a nefarious battle being waged by a segment of the population to take back what was lost in the 1970s. Charter schools were conceptualized immediately after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1955."

What would Nathan say to the wary?

"I'd say that while I completely respect and understand the concerns about what's happened, and completely respect the concern that the world is not entirely fair, the evidence is quite clear that some African-Americans who did poorly in existing schools are doing far better in charter schools."

Shouldn't that be the bottom line?