Black Alliance for Educational Options

February 27, 2004

Last night we attended an membership reception hosted by the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) in Philadelphia (at right is Dawn Chavous, chair of the Membership Committee). While we've been a member for about two years, this is the first event we've attended. These folks are passionate about increasing educational options for children--our kind of people!

And what is BAEO? From their homepage:

The Black Alliance for Educational Options, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a national, non-profit membership organization, whose mission is to actively support parental choice to empower families and increase quality educational options for black children.

And how exactly do they propose to increase these options?

BAEO supports a mix of educational options, including Supplementary Education Programs, Innovations in Traditional Public Schools, Home-Schooling, Public-Private Partnerships, Tuition Tax Credits, Privately Financed Scholarships, Vouchers and Charter Schools.

This is significant, for traditionally black leadership has shied away from any options other than public schooling. The NAACP is either silent on--or critical of--any efforts to increase choice in education, especially vouchers, mirroring the position of the national Democratic Party. It is very unfortunate that pure politics gets the upper hand, while tens of thousands of children of color languish in schools that are definitely underserving them.

While it is important to work actively to fix our public schools, it is even more important to give parents a choice. In a conversation with local BAEO board member Sheila Royal-Moses, she summed up a parent's outrage: "How dare you tell me to wait for the system to get better!"

BAEO's motto says it all: Give parents a choice. Give children a chance.