Predictably, the editors of the News & Observer believe that the state should deny the charter school application submitted by representatives of the Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School in Chapel Hill because the school would “lessen diversity in the existing schools – a detrimental effect.”
Apparently, keeping the diversity in the existing schools is preferable to “closing or eliminating the ‘achievement gap’ in testing between minority and white students in Chapel Hill,” the primary focus of the Lee Scholars Charter School.
The N&O editors “forgot” to mention that the school bears the name of Howard Lee, the first African American mayor of a predominantly white Southern town (yes, Chapel Hill), former state legislator, and past chairman of the State Board of Education and the governor’s Education Cabinet. I suspect that the cognitive dissonance was too much for the editors of the N&O. I mean, a Democratic leader in North Carolina’s African American community has the nerve to back a proposal that would “lessen diversity” in Chapel Hill/Carrboro schools? That doesn’t make any sense!
Well, it does make sense for African American leaders, like Lee, who worry that white elites in Chapel Hill and elsewhere are too willing to use district schools to gratify their egos and assuage their guilt at the expense of another generation of minority kids. Lee and his associates know that public schools – district and charter alike – can (and should) do better to cultivate academic excellence in all students.
