How school privatization allows discrimination
December 11, 2018 - por ITPI
The National Education Policy Center has released a new report on How School Privatization Opens the Door for Discrimination, by Julie F. Mead and Suzanne E. Eckes. “Our review of relevant laws indicates that voucher and charter school programs open the door to discrimination because of three phenomena. First, federal law defines discrimination differently in public and private spaces. Second, state legislatures have largely ignored the issue of non-discrimination while constructing voucher laws and have created charter laws that fail to comprehensively address non-discrimination. And third, because private and charter schools have been given authority to determine what programs to offer, they have the ability to attract some populations while excluding others.” For more background, listen to this interview of education historian and anti-privatization advocate Diane Ravitch by Pete Tucker. [Audio, about 12 minutes]