What would Martin Luther King Jr. say about class size and charter schools?

On this, the holiday commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, we should remember that African-American children still suffer from inequitable conditions in our nation's schools - foremost among them, larger classes.

This is despite the fact that class size reduction is one of the very few reforms that have been proven to narrow the achievement gap, as poor and minority children receive twice the benefit from smaller classes than the average student. (See this recent issue brief from ETS, with data revealing the persistent inequities in class size, and pointing out that the achievement gap narrowed substantially in the 1970's and 1980's but stalled in the 1990's -- just as progress in reducing class size stalled nationally as well. )

Yet the corporate reformers who have hijacked educational policy in this nation, including Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, and Michelle Rhee, are all calling for even larger class sizes in our nation's public schools.

Rather than support equitable conditions, they are promoting the further expansion of charter schools, which as the UCLA Civil Rights Project has pointed out, leads to more segregation, not less. See also this excellent article by Jim Horn on the charter school issue, "What would Dr. King say?"

See below; one of the first in-depth televised interviews ever given by Martin Luther King Jr., first broadcast on NBC news on October 27, 1957.

(thanks to Mona Davids of the NY Charter Parents Association for pointing out the Jim Horn article.)

Inez Barron gives it to us, straight

At the rally at City Hall today on school governance, Assemblymember Inez Barron, a former principal, denounces the Senate deal on governance and offers a blistering critique of the Bloomberg/Klein education record. (For more on the outlines of the deal, see GothamSchools, Daily News, Times, Post.)

From class size and "creative confusion" to the NAEPs, Barron tells the real story behind the Bloomberg myth. She even quotes John Dewey and Martin Luther King Jr. on the meaning and purpose of education. Inez Barron for Schools Chancellor!

(video thanks to David B.)

The Dream and The Inauguration

Media outlets are reporting that Americans believe that Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has been fulfilled as a result of Barack Obama's election to the presidency. In fact, a new CNN poll found that more than two thirds of African-Americans believe that to be true.

The poll found 69 percent of blacks said King's vision has been fulfilled in the more than 45 years since his 1963 "I have a dream" speech -- roughly double the 34 percent who agreed with that assessment in a similar poll taken last March.

But let us not forget that economic justice was a central component of King's vision. In fact, at the time of his assassination, King (with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) was focused on the "Poor People's Campaign," an effort to promote a bill of rights for poor Americans.

The election of Barack Obama by itself does not erase the fact that economic inequality in our nation is at historic highs. This inequality disproportionately affects the black community. There is work to be done. Educational opportunity provides a path to success in the labor market and resulting economic gains. President Obama has a tremendous opportunity to be not just a physical embodiment of King's dream but to change national policies that feed inequality, both in opportunities and in outcomes.