Over 200 dedicated public education activists, parents, teachers, and elected officials gathered today to strategize over how to effectively engage legislators, county commissioners and school boards on critical education issues in the coming year. Among the most critical include: increasing per pupil funding provided by the state, greater educational and financial accountability for charter schools, and opposition to the so-called “achievement School District” and further privatization of public education. Advocates also insisted that racial and socio-economic diversity be prioritized, as well as an end to disparities in discipline, access to resources, the targeting of low-wealth or underperforming schools, and the privatization and marketization of public education. These are our children, not our customers.

Here’s the News & Observer op-ed by my colleague Elizabeth Haddix and me on charter schools, their lack of racial and economic diversity, and how the state could begin to address this issue.

NC Charter Schools Failing to Deliver on Diversity Promise