PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A long-awaited investigation finds no evidence that the Philadelphia School Board discriminates against Black-led charter schools.
The 191-page report from the law firm Ballard Spahr found there was no racial discrimination by the Philadelphia School Board in how it authorizes and renews Black-led charters.
"We are pleased to share that the investigation has not revealed any evidence of intentional overt racially discriminatory acts by the SRC, any board member, the district, the charter school office or anyone," School Board President Reginald Streater told KYW Newsradio in an interview Friday.
"We said, if there's any finding of discrimination, period, full stop, that's a red line for us. And we are again pleased that that red line apparently wasn't crossed."
Streater said many of the applications were denied on merit.
"In each of those instances, Ballard came to the conclusion that there was no finding of discrimination," Streater said.
Of the 13 charters the district voted not to renew or revoke between 2010 and 2021, eight were Black-led. The board commissioned the independent investigation in December 2021 after members of the African American Charter Schools Coalition (AACSC) alleged the district was biased against Black-founded charters. The coalition said Black-led charters represented 19% of the city's charter schools, but 87% of Philadelphia charter closures and non-renewals.
"I don't know that we can say that we're satisfied,” said Dawn Chavous, a spokesperson for the AACSC. "The word 'intentional overt bias' is in there. But what is not in there is, what if it's not intentional? Does that mean the bias didn't exist?"
The report said while the district's Charter Schools Office was aware of racial disparities in authorizing charters, the district didn't act to address those concerns.
"We need a complete overhaul of the authorization process in Philadelphia,” Chavous said.
While it didn't find evidence of bias, the report recommended the district should separate the jobs of supporting and evaluating charters, and lobby Harrisburg for a different authorizing model to "alleviate conflicts of interest."
"There are a few recommendations in there that the board is going to have to still digest, and we are not yet at a point where we can opine on what should go forward, [or] what should not go forward," Streater said.
Ballard Spahr provided the report pro bono, but the district is responsible for a $55,000 third-party analysis of charter evaluation data by the Center for Urban and Racial Equity.