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Teachers & Classroom
PTA Group Protests School Choice
April 2008
Controversy has broken out in Richmond, Va., over an issue that causes friction in many communities: school choice. Local PTAs have taken an outspoken stance against the city’s open-enrollment policy, charging that it leads to racial and class segregation.
“I want to get the message out there that open enrollment is a farce. All we’re advocating for is schools of equal stature for all of the kids,” Tichi Pinkney-Eppes, president of the Richmond Council of PTAs, told Style Weekly.
Parents may apply for their children to attend open-enrollment schools, which offer additional enrichment opportunities and tend to be located in higher-income neighborhoods. Applicants are chosen by lottery; however, the district no longer provides bus service for students attending school outside their own neighborhood. As more middle-class parents opt for open enrollment, the remaining schools become increasingly segregated, PTA officials say.
“We see a dual educational system operating in Richmond that we would like to change,” says Arthur Burton, the PTA council’s legislative chairman.
The Richmond Council of PTAs proposes $200 million in new school construction to provide comparable facilities throughout the city. “The issue goes to the heart of two things that people in Richmond don’t like to talk openly about: race and class,” Burton says.
The district spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.
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