Black Politicians Vs. Black Voters

On Election Day earlier this month, voters in Georgia approved a ballot initiative that will expand school choice in a state where one in three high school freshmen fails to graduate in four years. You might consider this progress, but some lawmakers in the state are fighting the new law, which passed 59% to 41%. Even more curious is the fact that black lawmakers are leading the charge.

The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus has announced that it will join a lawsuit to block the expansion of charter schools in the state, even though black voters were strong supporters of the ballot initiative. According to Douglas Blackman, a former Atlanta bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, in the Georgia counties where most African-Americans live, black support for the new law outpaced overall support.

“One of the most striking results of the vote on Amendment 1, which was approved by Georgia voters on Tuesday and creates an independent commission to authorize public charter schools in the state, is the absolutely extraordinary level of support received from African-American voters,” Mr. Blackman wrote recently.

“In the 20 Georgia counties where African-Americans make up half or more of the population, the amendment was approved by 61% of all voters and in 14 of those 20 counties. . .. In the 13 counties where more than half of Georgia’s three million black citizens live, the margin of support was even higher: 62% approval.”

Mr. Blackman concludes that the level of black support “flatly contradicts one of the flimsiest canards used to criticize Amendment 1—and charter schools in general. That is: the idea that somehow charter schools end up hurting minority or poorer students while disproportionately helping white and middle class children.”

Mr. Blackman’s analysis illustrates the disconnect between the agenda of the black political leadership and the actual concerns of blacks in general and the black underclass in particular. For decades, polls have consistently shown that black parents favor vouchers, charter schools and other options that allow their children to escape a system that consigns poor students to violent, dysfunctional learning environments, even while black lawmakers and civil rights organizations typically have sided with teachers unions that oppose such measures.

Which is to say that these so-called black leaders who oppose school choice are not only wrong on the merits—black children with access to vouchers and charters have better academic outcomes—but also are blatantly ignoring the preferences of their black constituents. To all of the other problems that low-income minorities endure, add derelict political representatives.

By Jason Riley

This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

Category: Election 2012, Featured