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'It’s like a black and white thing’: How some elite charter schools exclude minorities
...A 2007 company document laid out the perks of making it “the cornerstone” of the community: “Although the school will be open, on a limited basis, to those who live outside district boundaries, the most important aspect of Lake Oconee Academy with regard to [the company] is that it will enable younger families, including employees of [the company], to live in the area affordably, in both apartments and homes.”
Related: A university grapples with its links to slavery and racism
According to its 2007 charter application, 80 percent of Lake Oconee Academy’s seats would go to children living in Zone 1, which was mainly comprised of Reynolds’ properties; 12 percent would go to kids living in the mostly white neighborhoods nearby; and the final 8 percent of seats would be for families in the rest of Greene County. Those attendance zones all but guaranteed that the school would serve a whiter and more affluent student body than Greene County’s traditional public schools.
Lake Oconee Academy is expanding. A new high school facility is under construction.Terrell Clark / The Hechinger Report
In the summer of 2007, a group of Greene County residents traveled to Atlanta to protest what they saw as a plot to re-segregate their schools. Despite the pushback, state education officials approved the charter. In the school’s first year, just 11 students enrolled — all were white.
...A 2007 company document laid out the perks of making it “the cornerstone” of the community: “Although the school will be open, on a limited basis, to those who live outside district boundaries, the most important aspect of Lake Oconee Academy with regard to [the company] is that it will enable younger families, including employees of [the company], to live in the area affordably, in both apartments and homes.”
Related: A university grapples with its links to slavery and racism
According to its 2007 charter application, 80 percent of Lake Oconee Academy’s seats would go to children living in Zone 1, which was mainly comprised of Reynolds’ properties; 12 percent would go to kids living in the mostly white neighborhoods nearby; and the final 8 percent of seats would be for families in the rest of Greene County. Those attendance zones all but guaranteed that the school would serve a whiter and more affluent student body than Greene County’s traditional public schools.
Lake Oconee Academy is expanding. A new high school facility is under construction.Terrell Clark / The Hechinger Report
In the summer of 2007, a group of Greene County residents traveled to Atlanta to protest what they saw as a plot to re-segregate their schools. Despite the pushback, state education officials approved the charter. In the school’s first year, just 11 students enrolled — all were white.