The NAACP Is Working Against The Interests of Black Students

The “cycle of poverty” is the set of factors in which poverty is likely to continue unless there is outside intervention. This cycle is real, but poverty can be reduced by fighting against the self-serving forces which benefit from the status quo.
Labor unions have contributed enormously to the welfare of the American people over the last century and a half. In some professions, notably education, however, they have outlived their usefulness and have become an impediment to progress by too often trapping students in dysfunctional schools. In an effort to hold on to their power, union management has built links with influential organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP.  Given charter schools’ clearly superior performance as well as black parental support, why the NAACP opposes charter schools is an enigma, per Aug. 23, 2016, U.S. News & World Report. Is it the financial contributions the unions make to the NAACP or is it for other reasons? No clear answer is yet known.
As a result, the NAACP is working against the best interests of the very people their association was formed to advance. In lockstep with educational unions, they are now calling for a moratorium on the creation of charter schools.
Some background. Charter schools have been so successful that hundreds of thousands of black students nationally take part in a lottery for an opportunity to attend them, per the Aug. 27, 2016 Wall Street Journal.  The federal Every Student Succeeds Act, the 2015 act which replaced No Child Left Behind, is on the right track in directing states to counter union rules which perpetuate underperforming schools and teachers.
The NAACP has complained that charter schools employ punitive discipline, but their measures track those of traditional schools, according to a report from the American Enterprise Institute; this doesn’t constitute a reason to oppose them.
The reason for union opposition is clear: charter schools are typically non-union; some of them state outright that the key to their success is that they are non-union.  In California, for example, only 30 percent are unionized.
Because a good education empowers all people, these schools are clearly one answer to addressing poverty among blacks, as the percentage of black students in these schools is double that of the traditional public schools. A 2013 Black Alliance for Education Options poll of blacks in four southern states overwhelmingly supported government offering as many education choices as possible.
As black columnist, Juan Williams states, “American K-12 education is in trouble, especially for minority children, and its continuing neglect is a scandal.”  Knowledge of the scandal is the first step toward countering it.
Art Hall
From the Bible: (God said), if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7: 14