Last week in this spot, we blogged our own disapproval of Little Rock Attorney Chris Heller’s outrageous bashing of Little Rock area charter schools for, of all things, fostering racial segregation in Little Rock schools.  In truth, that’d be some job, somehow making the Little Rock public schools even MORE segregated.  Sort of like, helping make Michael Jordan MORE of a basketball player, or Bill Clinton MORE of a politician, or the Beatles MORE of a great band, or…well, you get the picture. 
 
No reason for us to get any further into this, particularly when the UA’s OEP just got into this mess earlier in the week. 
 
But, this whole combative discussion reminds me of a more cordial meeting just last week at the UA, where Mike Feinberg of KIPP Houston and Scott Shirey of KIPP Helena AR spoke to a large audience of educators about their mission to serve underprivileged students.  KIPP has a remarkable track record of taking 100s and then 1000s of economically disadvantaged students and guiding them along the path toward college.  KIPP’s goal, according to Feinberg, is get his students (he often refers to them as his kids or his babies) “to and through college”.
 
Take a second to watch this clip of a 60 minutes special on KIPP … I promise it’s inspiring and worth the time.  Anyway, toward the end of the talk, Feinberg and Shirey began to refer to the work of educating disadvantaged and mostly minority students as a new “Civil Rights Movement”.   They weren’t kidding and weren’t exaggerating.  Since I am aware of the numbers on the racial achievement gaps in AR and throughout the country, I tend to agree.  Why shouldn’t we be providing all students (not just affluent students) with a high-quality education?  Is this not a civil right? Most state Constitutions already include language legislating an adequate and equitable education.  High quality for the “haves” and not for the “have-nots” hardly seems equitable.
 

And how do KIPPS live each day to serve students?  Well, in most cases, they do so as charter schools – the same charter schools demonized by Little Rock attorneys.  So, the question is – do the charters serve as opportunities for students in a new “Civil Rights Movement” or are they schools which encourage and foster segregation?  We have KIPP arguing on one side and Heller and his crew on the other.  When we listen to KIPP folks, it is always about the kids; when we listen the LR attorneys, well, not so much.
 
You take a look and make your own choice.