ProPublica recently published “Segregation Academies Across the South Are Getting Millions in Taxpayer Dollars.” The article focuses on 20 private schools in North Carolina founded during the civil rights era with student bodies that are 85% or more white.
“Segregation academies that remain vastly white continue to play an integral role in perpetuating school segregation—and, as a result, racial separation in the surrounding communities,” ProPublica states.
The article holds that the Opportunity Scholarship Program represents some sort of neo-segregationist plot but misses the bigger picture—most highly segregated schools in North Carolina are, in fact, public schools. Using criteria established by the authors, public school “segregation academies” greatly outnumber the private schools identified by ProPublica. Moreover, they spend vastly more taxpayer…
