At a community forum last week, Durham Public Schools superintendent Pascal Mubenga said that, due to charter schools, “If Durham is not careful, its schools will become segregated like they were in the 1950s.”

Days after Dr. Mubenga made those remarks, the Herald Sun reported,

Meanwhile, in Durham Public Schools, black students were 8.7 times more likely than white students to receive short-term suspensions. Black students were 46 percent of the district’s enrollment but received 81.5 percent of the short-term suspensions,

White students in DPS made up 18.5 percent of the district’s enrollment, but received only 3.6 percent of the short-tern suspensions. Hispanics, roughly 30 percent of enrollment in 2015-16, had 12.3 percent of the short-term suspensions.

Student discipline is a complex issue, and I will not review the various perspectives on it here.  But it is evident that charter schools are the least of Dr. Mubenga’s concerns.  Indeed, charters may even be part of the solution.