A North Carolina charter school's requirement that girls wear skirts based on the view that they are "fragile vessels" deserving of "gentle" treatment by boys is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 10-6 that Charter Day School violated three female students' equal protection rights by adopting the skirts policy based on gender stereotypes about the "proper place" for girls in society.
The school implemented a dress code that its founder, businessman Baker Mitchell, in an email and testimony said would "preserve chivalry" and ensure girls are treated "courteously and more gently than boys."
(Nate Raymond. “North Carolina charter school's skirt requirement for girls unconstitutional, court rules.” Reuters. June 14, 2022.)
Charter schools can't have it “both ways.” If they are state-funded, they must abide by the law, not make up their own rules like Charter Day School's dress code that supposedly “preserved chivalry” by violating students' rights.
Charter Day School is a state-funded school. This is the first time a federal appeals court has recognized that charter schools receiving public funds are subject to the same constitutional and civil rights safeguards as traditional public schools.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina, and the law firm Ellis & Winters LLP originally filed this challenge on behalf of three Brunswick County students.
“Nothing in the Equal Protection Clause prevents public schools from teaching universal values of respect and kindness,” wrote Judge Barbara Keenan of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. “But those values are never advanced by the discriminatory treatment of girls in a public school.”
(Gillian Branstetter. “Federal Appeals Court Says Charter School Students Enjoy Constitutional Rights in Case Involving School Dress Codes. ACLU. June 14, 2022.)
Republican-Supported Charters
Republicans have always favored school choice, assuming that competition makes all schools better, while Democratic leaders have been more selective (and varied) in which programs they support. The history of the charter school movement constitutes a substantial, ongoing attempt to remake the governance of public schools.
However, Diane Ravitch, historian of education and Research Professor of Education at New York University, says …
“The fact that charters have failed to demonstrate consistently superior academic performance doesn’t bother the Republicans, nor does the number of failed charters, nor are they dissuaded by the charters that have been caught up in financial scandals.
“Nor do they care that the expansion of charters drains money from the public schools.
"Nor are they troubled that many charters cherrypick their students and exclude students with disabilities and English learners.”
(Diane Ravitch. Republicans Champion the Charter School Movement. https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/06/republicans-embrace-the-charter-school-movement/. February 06, 2014.)
Often, the arrival of a charter is the death knell for a parochial school. In New York state, a 2012 study found that for every charter school that opened, a parochial school closed. A lot is at play – changing economies mean changing populations and fortunes; but this is also a change wrought with the assistance of the Republican Party.
(Abraham M. Lackman. “The Collapse Of Catholic School
Enrollment: the Uninted Consequence Of the Charter School Movement.”
Albany Government Law Review. February 25, 2013.)
Why do Republicans detest public schools? Some think it is because charters are overwhelmingly non-union. But Republicans support charters just as enthusiastically in states where unions are prohibited.
Rick Cohen, national correspondent for Nonprofit Quarterly states, “Bottom line is that Republicans are unconcerned about creating a dual school system: one sector that can pick its students and kick out the ones it doesn’t want, and the other sector that must take all students.”
(Rick Cohen. “Republican Gubernatorial Campaigns Play the Charter School Card https://nonprofitquarterly.org/republican-gubernatorial-campaigns-play-the-charter-school-card/. Nonprofit Quarterly. January 24, 2014.)
Any Way You Cut It
Charter schools, which are often privately managed and run on public funds, are not truly private. They want public assistance. They want it both ways – to make their own rules yet receive the money.
So, if charter school are receiving public funds, they must abide by the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment and also allow students to pursue a claim under Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally-funded education. In other words, the recent ruling confirms that Charter Day School must provide a universal education to students. A contrary ruling would mean North Carolina could ignore "blatant" discrimination.
Trump's Education Secretary Betsy DeVos – a billionaire who once said public schools are “a dead end” – and her allies pushed their own definition of public education.
DeVos said …
"If the taxpayer is paying for education, it’s public education. We have parents who are lining up for a tax credit scholarship. They would not do that if the program was not succeeding."
Yet as the charter school industry pours huge sums of money into its advocacy and lobbying efforts, it does little to address, and even worsens, the pervasive inequality that is at the root of the nation’s education problems.
DeVos knows that charter schools operate with far fewer rules of transparency than traditional school systems. She also knows the movement includes students who attend private and religious schools with publicly funded vouchers, tax credits and education savings accounts. And, she knows that private schools can legally discriminate against LGBTQ students and other groups of students, citing religious reasons.
Fire – By Nikita Gill
Remember what you must
do
when they undervalue you,
when they think
your softness
is your weakness,
when they treat your kindness
like it is
their advantage.
You awaken
every
dragon,
every wolf,
every monster
that sleeps inside of
you
and you remind them
what hell looks like
when it wears
the skin
of a gentle human.
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