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Part IV: Supply Strain: Why Virtual Charters Cannot Ensure Equal Resource Distribution

© Jennifer James

This is the fourth part in the series: Free Folly: Why Black Families Should Resist Free Virtual Charter Schools

It goes without saying that urban schools in America receive less monetary school funds than suburban ones. Researchers and educators continue to cite unequal resource allocation as one of the primary, existing reasons why black children fare so poorly in urban and inner city public schools. As virtual charter schools are themselves public institutions, I argue that unequal resource allocation can be easily replicated on the virtual level, thus causing free virtual charters to be yet more purveyors of the dismal state of public education.

Free virtual charter schools across the country all operate in generally the same fashion. Home schooling parents sign up for the school's services and then the homeschooled student is showered with all manner of school supplies in order to adequately participate in said virtual school's program. For example, a student can receive a free computer, monitor, printer, software, textbooks and other free supplies such as parabolas and protractors, maps, workbooks, and manipulatives.

This appears to be a wonderful option for parents because they can teach their children at home and receive all of the educational supplies to adequately do so. Once again, this model of education - the virtual charter school - can be harmful to black home schooling families.

In most instances, black families can be found clustered in certain zip codes in any given city. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. However, based on census reports by county, blacks typically tend to live in certain areas and other races live in separate areas. This is not to say or imply that there are no mixed-raced neighborhoods. It is simply meant to say, in large part, that cities are broken down by socioeconomic factors first and then by striated racial factors second.

For the sake of argument, what if a state's virtual school gets wind that students in "abc zip code" have a greater chance of being black and poor as opposed to other students who live in "xyz zip code?" How would the virtual school handle this situation? Would the black students enrolled in the virtual charter school be given the same quality supplies as the white students who live across town in a gated community? Would the school be completely equitable and fair in its supply distribution, or would it revert to the current educational resource allocation model and send second-rate supplies to minorities who live in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods?

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