I’ve written before about how I get especially upset when rich people use the coercive power of government to screw poor people. There’s an equally offensive corollary to this principle, and that’s when powerful people use big government to impose hardship on helpless people.
And that’s exactly what’s happening in New York City, where the NAACP is siding with the teachers union to deny black children a chance to escape failing government schools. I genuinely wonder how people like that live with themselves. Do they ever feel shame or guilt? Do they have trouble sleeping at night? When they use their comfortable incomes to buy luxuries, do they feel a twinge of unease that they support policies that will make it much harder for others to enjoy a better life?
Here are the key passages from the Wall Street Journal’s editorial on the issue.
Thousands of American blacks held a rally in Harlem last week to protest . . . the NAACP. The New York state chapter of the civil rights organization and the United Federation of Teachers, the local teachers union, have filed a lawsuit to stop the city from closing 22 of Gotham’s worst schools. The lawsuit also aims to block the city from giving charter schools space to operate in buildings occupied by traditional public schools. Protesters at the rally, which included parents and charter school operators like Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children’s Zone, urged the NAACP to withdraw from the suit. …The teachers union wants to keep these abysmal schools open to preserve jobs for their members. This is bad enough. But the union and NAACP also want to limit better educational options for low-income families who can’t afford private schools and can’t afford to move to an affluent neighborhood with decent public schools. The union knows that in a place like New York City, where space is at a premium, blocking charters from operating in public buildings will hamper charter growth. If the lawsuit succeeds, the awful schools will remain open to damage another generation of children. If you want to know why the NAACP has become irrelevant to the lives of African-Americans, this typical display of moral indifference to the plight of minority children is Exhibit A.
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You have to lump the NAACP, Sharpton, Jesse Jackson as Americas leaders in keeping the racism pot stirred!!!!!!
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If you choose 22 of NYs worst schools to defend over a school that has to be an upgrade then yiu too have chosen big government over the education of the children. The NAACP working to keep them open is just another indication they are liberals first and liberals last,.
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I agree with Faith Elle & the NAACP.
Charter Schools need to be sustainable with THEIR OWN resources!
Check out NAACP President Ben Jealous’ OP-ED that was in the Washington Post.
http://www.naacp.org/news/entry/op-ed-why-the-naacp-is-suing-nyc-dept.-of-education/
Why must there always be some underlying current of shadiness when long-standing, successful and relevant organizations like the NAACP ruffle the feathers of inequality?
The NAACP will win this one. Hands down.
I am disappointed by the overwhelming negative comments made toward the NAACP. Point blank people have become so jaded by Charter Schools that they could care less about how resources are taken from public schools to support Charter Schools. Flat out, if an organization has the educational resources to create a charter, they should be able to find their own financial support to create a building to house the school itself. Go NAACP!