Public charter schools are designed to provide parents with an opportunity to send their children to the school that best works for them instead of being limited to their zoned school.
But Memphis Representative Antonio Parkinson believes there are still too many challenges that prevent students of color and those from low-income backgrounds from truly having a school choice, even when public charter schools are available.
“When you’re making a choice, it’s because you have more than one opportunity,” said Parkinson.
Rep. Parkinson has utilized school choice for his daughter. She attended private school, a public charter school, and a traditional public school. In each case, they were choices Parkinson says he had the luxury of making because he had the necessary resources.
That’s something many economically disadvantaged students don’t have.
“If those individuals that live in that neighborhood don’t have the resources that I had to take their kids to another neighborhood, another community and put them in school, then that’s not an actual choice.”
Parkinson says one big challenge for students in low-income neighborhoods is transportation. School districts provide transportation to a student’s zoned school, but some public charter schools do not offer transportation.
For families with limited resources, that may be their only option.
“The bottom line is this: if you’re gonna be pushing and selling school choice, you also have to sell resources to people that are in poverty that cannot actually get to another choice.”
