Charter Schools & Scholarships In Demand : Obama Says No!

Wasn't it the cry of the hoards when Mr Obama was first elected in 2009 that he will level the playing field by coming to the aid of the black community? I wonder just how many in the black community today understand that Mr Obama couldn't care less about helping the black people become more viable and prosperous unless that help meant it would help him win votes.

I wonder to if the black community remembers how shortly after he was elected, one of the first things he did was shut down the charter schools in Washington DC which had waiting lines for access? He did this to shore up the base of voters in the teachers unions that gave millions to his campaign. He didn't care how shutting down the charter schools effected the poor blacks that want a good education for their children, as he knew 93% of the black community will still vote for him no matter what he did to them.

Mr Obama is all about money and power, who has it and will they give to him or how he can take it from them. Why is this lost on the black community? Why is lost on a majority of the voting public?

School Choice Is Important in the Black Community
Source: "A Survey Report on Education Reform, Charter Schools, and the Desire for Parental Choice in the Black Community," Black Alliance for Educational Options, 2013.
July 30, 2013

In March 2013, the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) commissioned a survey of Black voters in four Southern states to gauge attitudes and opinions within the Black community on education reform, charter schools and the need for parental choice in their community.

The findings indicate strong support among this significant segment of the population for greater freedom in K-12 education, widespread recognition of the need for better quality schools, and openness to charter schools and publicly funded scholarships as reform vehicles.

BAEO targeted Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi because of the high number of low-income and working-class Black families in these states who would potentially benefit from parental choice policies and other education reforms that have been the subject of recent and ongoing debate. Among the respondents, selected at random and broadly diverse in age and income:

• Eighty-five percent to 89 percent in each state agreed that government should provide parents with as many choices as possible to ensure that their child receives a good education.
• Fifty-five percent to 58 percent in each state (and 73 percent in the New Orleans area) said they would not send their children to the public schools to which they are currently assigned if they had a choice.
• At least 50 percent in each state (and as many as seven in 10 in Mississippi) expressed support for charter schools.
• In Alabama, even among those who rated their school excellent, 36 percent would opt out if they had the choice.
• Less surprising, 74 percent of Black voters in Alabama who rated their community schools poorly expressed the desire to send their children elsewhere.
• In Mississippi and Kentucky, a majority of Black voters rated the quality of public education as only fair, while just 14 percent in both states rated their local school systems as excellent.

The survey data underscore the fundamental appeal of parent choice and transformational education reform as concepts within the Black community.

• The findings are particularly relevant in the context of education reform debates unfolding in the target states.
• Alabama and Kentucky are among the eight states in the nation without charter schools; Mississippi just passed a law paving the way for its first charters.
• Louisiana is implementing the expansion of a publicly-funded scholarship program to extend education choice more broadly statewide as well as serving as an example of high quality charter schools in New Orleans.