Blacks rethink school choice

What a travesty, after all the suffering of the Little Rock Nine and countless others like them to integrate our schools, that we have allowed our public schools -- especially those "serving" low-income, minority children -- to be so horrible that black leaders in South Carolina and elsewhere are yearning for the days of segregation?!  

 Sen. Darrell Jackson remembers his days at racially segregated Atlas Road  Elementary School as good days.

 He knew the teachers. He knew the principal down the hall and the school  superintendent, too.

 Just as importantly, Jackson said, the educators knew him. They knew his  siblings and his family. They also understood his academic potential.
 
“Many, many African-Americans are longing for those days again,” said  Jackson, pastor of the 10,000-member Bible Way Church of Atlas Road just  outside the southeast Columbia city limits.
 
Jackson, 50, is among a handful of black lawmakers who say they are  concerned that S.C. public schools are failing to educate poor and minority  children. Their concern could push the state’s years-long debate over school  choice and vouchers or tax credits for private school tuition over the finish  line in 2008.
 
Standing in the well of the Senate during a debate in May, Jackson, long  considered a public school defender, said he could see the day coming when he  would support school choice.
 
It would be a historic alliance — traditionally pro-public school black  Democrats, such as Jackson, joining with school choice advocates, largely  white Republicans — to allow parents to use public money to send their  children to better-performing public or private schools.

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Blacks rethink school choice
Pastors, lawmakers say S.C. poorly educates many pupils
By RODDIE BURRIS, 7/22/07
rburris@thestate.com <mailto:rburris@thestate.com>  
http://www.thestate.com/news/v-print/story/125275.html

Sen. Darrell Jackson remembers his days at racially segregated Atlas Road Elementary School as good days.