A school’s charter renewal prompted discussion by DeKalb County school board members on racial bias in the district, with one member calling for equity in how the district distributes technology and E-SPLOST dollars, among other things.
Board member Joyce Morley also said magnet programs and charter schools further dilute the chances for those at underserved schools to finally get a chance at parity.
“Either you invest now or you’re going to pay dearly later,” said Morley, who represents District 7, during Monday’s school board work session. “All schools should be treated the same whether they’re charter or not. Every child matters. Until we see that, we’re going to have people wanting to take their children to other schools. It comes down to, what are we doing to show there are not inferior schools?”
The discussion began as the board considered the DeKalb Academy of Technology and the Environment’s application for charter renewal. Michael Erwin, who represents District 3, said it bothered him that applicants sometimes could not answer simple questions including why a charter was being sought.
“Personally, I’m more concerned about whether they’re more financially viable,” said board member Stan Jester, who represents District 1. “Are their [test] scores good? And I think the fact that there’s a 300-person waiting list tells me those parents are paying attention and they want to go into those schools. I mean, what’s the waiting list to get into McNair Elementary? It’s not 300 kids. The parents know where they want to send their kids.”
Morley said schools on the south side of the district — mostly inhabited by minorities and in areas where households report lower incomes — are often the most needy: Buildings need repair; more students are in portable classrooms, trailers, because of overcrowding; Students often must share electronic devices, while their counterparts in the northern part of the district have their own to use.
“If you’re not going to have equity and children are not treated the same and they’re not a Fernbank or somewhere else, would you be on a waiting list?” Morley said. “And we know what needs to be done. If you treat all the schools the same, make the buildings look the same, bring in the same people, give them the same kind of equipment … ”
Jester said charter schools provide options for parents and students.
“That’s the whole point of charters, to give us a signal of what is and isn’t working,” Jester responded. “If people couldn’t move to another school, we’d have no idea what people like and what they want to see. But if we allow them to move, we see, ‘hey, they’re doing something.’ I would love to give these schools that don’t have waiting lists whatever they need … so that people wouldn’t be on waiting lists for other schools.”
“We know what’s wrong,” Morley shot back. “We don’t need a charter school to tell us what’s wrong. It’s been wrong for hundreds of years. It’s nothing new. If a kid is hungry at that house, what makes you think he needs to go to another house to show he needs to eat? That doesn’t make any sense. We need to stop playing games and coming up with these newfangled ideas believing that it’s going to be any different.”
Erwin said Jester’s comment on McNair Elementary School was disrespectful to students, parents and staff at the school. He said during the meeting that he’s offered to take Jester on a tour of the schools in his district to show how they were functioning.
“I can’t understand how you can’t get your point across without disrespecting these schools,” Erwin said.
“Are you happy with the level of achievement?” Jester asked Erwin.
“I’m not happy with the level of achievement,” Erwin said.
“Something needs to change.”
“Stop disrespecting these schools”
“I’m not trying to disrespect these schools, but —”
“Then find a better way to say it,” Erwin said, turning away from Jester.
The board did eventually vote to approve the DeKalb Academy of Technology and the Environment’s charter renewal during its business meeting.
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