I was waiting for my son’s transition IEP (Individual Education Program) meeting in the office of his new school (he will be leaving a pre-school special ed program next week and entering a general ed kindergarten class in August) when I saw hanging from the wall the Norman Rockwell illustration of a girl with a black eye sitting outside the principal’s office. She looked dazed and happy, like she probably won the fight. My wife and I were also about to fight, having disagreed with the school district’s original offer of FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education) and written a letter to the Special Ed Director explaining our concerns. We had recently won in a fair hearing versus Regional Center (our son had been denied services there and a judge overturned their decision) so we were feeling pretty scrappy. We knew that we could prevail. Part of that confidence was due to the excellent legal representation we were able to secure, but more important was the fact that we could fight at all, that the system allowed for appeal.
If our son’s new school were a charter it could lock us out. So long. Don’t let the door hit you in the behind. There would be no recourse because, though funded by public money, charters can pick and choose who they serve. Although Secretary of Education Arne Duncan claims that charters are a guarantee of civil rights, they are the exact opposite. They deny what federal law requires, that all public schools treat all students equally regardless of race, belief or disability. Imagine how the public would react today if a privatized school turned away the little girl in another Rockwell illustration, The Problem We All Live With. The parents of six-year-old Ruby Bridges volunteered their daughter to test the new integration laws in 1960. She became the first black child to attend an all-white public school. From Wikipedia:
The court-ordered first day of integrated schools in New Orleans, November 14, 1960, was commemorated by Norman Rockwell in the painting The Problem We All Live With. As Bridges describes it, “Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.” Former marshal Charles Burks later recalled, “She showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn’t whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we’re all very proud of her.”
Can you imagine what would happen today if a charter school turned her away? How is turning away children with disabilities any different? The problem we live with is inequality, a problem that Secretary Duncan will doubtless rectify, because in this country we defend the rights of children.
Or do we?
