Second, perhaps no field of endeavor is so resistant to research findings, either belittling or ignoring them, as is the public school establishment. Their interest in research findings seems to arise only when someone proposes a significant change. But if it is a proposed reform to which the establishment objects, something that would be markedly different, demands are made for proof in advance, or within the first year of the new program's operation. An extreme example was given recently when one observer criticized a brand new charter school in Washington, D.C. when there was some confusion the first day of school, and not all textbooks had arrived. This has proven to be erroneous.
Most charter schools are in urban areas where the needs, and minority students, are greatest.
As a result, even though attendance is voluntary because all charter schools are schools of choice rather than ones to which students are assigned, minority enrollment is high. Now the movement has been charged with creating a new segregation. That these schools are located where the population is heavily minority, and everyone in the school is there willingly, is ignored. Also ignored are reports that public school enrollments show more black students are in predominantly black schools today than in 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision was handed down. Some of that is the result of residential patterns but it is also true school boards draw up attendance areas and not all of their decisions are believed to be neutral.