Justin Parmenter here tells the story of the “white flight academy” that decided to turn itself into a charter, thus relieving the parents of the burden of paying tuition. Now the taxpayers of North Carolina get to fund this school with a long history of fighting desegregation.
Hobgood Academy was founded in 1969 and opened in 1970 as a private academy for white parents who didn’t want their children to attend desegregated (by court order) schools in North Carolina. Tuition was low ($5,000) but onerous for the parents. They realized not long ago that they could become a charter school and the state would pay all their costs.
The Hobgood parent site confirms that the primary reason behind the school’s desire to become a public charter was not to increase diversity and expand opportunity for children of poverty at all. Rather, it was to allow children who already went to the 87% White school to continue to attend it, instead of going to Halifax County Schools, where only 4% of students are White. According to 2010 census data, Halifax County’s residents are 40% White and 53% Black.
North Carolina’s Director of Charter Schools opened Hobgood’s opening ceremony as a charter school and praised it for…its “diversity.”
Do you laugh or cry when confronted with such hypocrisy?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
To answer the question- I damn Bill Gates for funding the privatization that establishment Dems legitimized. It ushered in racism, elitism and through its profit-taking, it cannibalizes
workers’ children.
The Koch’s are labeled evil but, Gates wears his oligarch’s crown without public rebuke.
No justice.
retired teacher,
Love your comment. Especially these two sentences: “This One of the byproducts of all the manipulations by privatizers is that we are using public money to fund segregation. Shame on us!”
GREED!
Bill Gates has NO CLUE and promotes himself and his bank accounts. He knows how to manipulate, lie, and develops lousy technology to use in classrooms. He’s not an educator and his products suck.
“The potential exists to turn the tide of poverty in this community through excellence in education”
Hobgood became a charter school to get public funding for a segregationist academy, and the application was filed under false pretense. There is so much wrong with privatization. One the worst aspects is that opportunists exploit the law and rob the public schools of funding, Their manipulations are rarely challenged as there is little oversight and accountability.
Vouchers also allow opportunists to game the system. Vouchers are often used to supplement the funds of students whose parents can well afford the tuition. Vouchers are sometimes misused to pay for social rather than academic pursuits. When there is little accountability, the system invites waste and fraud.
In our public schools today more than half of the students live in poverty. These are the children that are often rejected by many charter schools. Privatization benefits the schemers and grifters at the expense of poor children. It enables private charter schools to take money from the public schools that serve the neediest students. The system as it now stands is an anti-democratic disgrace. One of the byproducts of all the manipulations by privatizers is that we are using public money to fund segregation. Shame on us!
No surprise re: “Rather, it was to allow children who already went to the 87% White school to continue to attend it, instead of going to Halifax County Schools, where only 4% of students are White. According to 2010 census data, Halifax County’s residents are 40% White and 53% Black.”
That is the purpose of charters and Vouchers, and now we have an even more fractured America. Makes me ill and SAD for this country.
Where is “Liberty and Freedom for ALL?”