The Black Alliance for Educational Options is shutting down for good at the end of the year, the group announced last week.
Founded by school choice pioneer Howard Fuller, BAEO is the only group at the national level focused exclusively on expanding school choice for low-income and working class African-American families—both through charter schools and vouchers. Fuller cited competition for visibility and funding in the increasingly crowded school choice advocacy realm.
The writing has been on the wall. A year and a half ago, BAEO started shedding some of its state chapters and launched a national campaign to reimagine and redesign the organization. But that fizzled out, said Fuller, when the effort didn’t yield ideas that were “transformative” enough. He also noted the growing criticism of school choice from such groups as the NAACP and Black Lives Matter.
