Minority Communities Divided Over Charters, Vouchers

By Lynn Olson

The contentious politics surrounding school choice and competition have produced deep divisions within minority communities and strained traditional alliances of civil rights groups, education organizations, and Democrats.

The National Alliance for the Advancement of Colored People, for example, has adopted resolutions opposing both vouchers and charter schools. "We want to fix the public schools first," said Hilary O. Shelton, the director of the organization's Washington bureau.

In contrast, the National Urban League opposes vouchers but wholeheartedly supports charters. Hugh B. Price, the organization's president, has even proposed converting all urban schools to charters, saying he wants to "liberate them from the stifling central-office bureaucracy and give them the latitude to operate the way...