by Julian Rose
Charter schools have a weird place in the landscape of education. The NAACP’s 2016 moratorium on the expansion of charter schools and a policy vision laid forth by Movement for Black Lives weighs heavily on my work as a Black educator in a charter school. Jumoke Academy is where I teach and it both defies and exemplifies common stereotypes about charter schools. While Black culture and leadership are inherent to our successes, parts of our practice and history purport oppression.
As Black families become disillusioned with the quality of their neighborhood schools, charter schools have been expanding across the nation as options for students although the concerns against them are growing and legitimate. The demands of the NAACP’s moratorium reflect the concerns of many educators and activists. To an extent, I share these concerns also. However, I always consider what to be in the best interest of Black students.
Jumoke Academy has taught me just how nuanced this charter school debate can and should be. Frankly, there’s levels to this shit. Jumoke is dichotomous in its impact. Potentially, my experience at a charter school as a Black educator who identifies as a man will inspire others to critique charter schools and their liberating and oppressive impacts on Black students.
Vision and Leadership
“Jumoke” is a Yoruba word meaning “the child is loved.” In 1997, Thelma Ellis Dickerson, a civil rights leader and educator dissatisfied with the ways that Black students in the North End of Hartford were being educated, decided to start a school. Twenty years later, the legacy of Thelma Ellis Dickerson lives on, as Jumoke strives to build scholars with strong character and a spirit of excellence. With a leadership team that is predominantly Black, Jumoke stands apart from most charter schools in existence, this school is quite literally for us, by us.
Consequence Systems / Behavior Management
A lot of charter schools suspend or expel students. When students are disciplined in this way, studies have shown that they have a higher likelihood of ending up in prison, and a lower likelihood of finding their way to college.
Nationally, charter schools are comprised of a higher percentage of students of color than traditional schools, as such, charter schools are sending our kids down the school-to-prison pipeline. However, some charter schools focus on restoration rather than punishment.
Jumoke Academy is somewhere in the middle. Our school has mostly done away with expulsions, but we do have an alarming number of suspensions. Working towards liberation, we are currently training all staff and faculty in restorative practices done with the intention of dissolving conflicts between educators and students with the ultimate goal of building a stronger community and avoiding punitive forms of discipline.
Our consequence systems are helping uplift our students, there is still a connection to the larger systems of oppression considering that we still suspend students, despite the restorative trainings and what we have learned about the oppressive impacts of punitive, isolationist consequences. Jumoke, therefore, cannot be the blueprint for liberation.
True liberation must include meaningful socioemotional supports and resources to help students’ growth through their mistakes, and become better equipped to manage their own actions in ways that will promote their success and self-fulfillment. Recognizing concerns of safety for our students, ultimately it is our duty to constantly interrogate whether or not our policies are strengthening our communities.
Transparency and Accountability
Charter schools have less government regulation than neighborhood schools because neighborhood schools are managed and paid for by municipal governments, while charter schools are not. Instead, charter schools are partially funded by the state government, with the remaining funding coming from grants and private donors. The lack of oversight of charter schools has led to scandals over the years.
Jumoke Academy is no exception to this particular problem. In 2014, it came to light that Jumoke Academy was being run by a charter management organization (CMO) called Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE) whose CEO was “Dr.” Michael Sharpe. Michael Sharpe, who was not a doctor, had a longstanding history of embezzlement and nepotism. This particular brand of exploitation in education is especially common in charter schools, due to their lack of regulation, resulting in many Black students and families being taken advantage of, lied to, and abused by yet another educational institution.
In a neighborhood school, by comparison, expenses are run through the city government, which is required to meticulously and bureaucratically account for every nickel and dime spent before and after the expenditure, resulting in fewer opportunities for financial irresponsibility (ideally). If Michael Sharpe were in a neighborhood school, he would’ve been required to report where all of the money was going, either deterring him from embezzling funds or catching him in the act.
Segregation
Segregation is “a setting apart or separation of people or things from others.” Charter schools are segregated. This phenomena is a symptom; the segregation of charter schools is caused by segregation of the cities they operate in.
Jumoke Academy is 98% Black and 2% Latinx, and it’s doubtful that these figures account for Afro-Latinx students. Our school is far from “integrated,” and this trend is reflective of many of charter schools in the nation.
But public neighborhood schools are also segregated, and the reason why is the same for charter schools: anti-Black housing policies.
***
Black students and communities will be most successful when they are well-informed. Charter schools are not the sole solution to solving the shortfalls in education, and they are not the cause of them either. At their best, they are yet another imperfect attempt at providing our communities with opportunities for excellent education. At their worst, they are just as exploitative and oppressive as the education system as a whole. The best thing we can do, is make sure our communities are empowered to make that choice on their own.
Julian Rose is a writer, poet and activist living in Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from the University of Connecticut majoring in Biomedical Engineering, and currently teaches middle school science at Jumoke Academy Charter School. Follow his work on twitter: @jroselivehd and IG: @julian.akil.rose
