By Marcelle Meyer

I consider myself fairly liberal on most issues. I do not want education or other government-funded services to be privatized. Instead, I want them to be expanded.

I have generally been opposed to charter schools because I saw them as harmful to the future of public education.

They only help a limited number of students and take funding away from developing public schools.
However, after a significant amount of exposure to charter schools in the South Bronx, I have a different idea.

The South Bronx is the poorest district in the nation. With more than one-third of people living below the poverty line, it should be at the top of New York State’s list of priorities in terms of education, infrastructure and crime reduction.

As of 2012, 90 percent of high school students graduated unprepared for college-level work.

I will always defend fixing public education. However, when the government decides that my own neighbors are not worth an education overhaul, I will defend these students first.

Charter schools in the South Bronx have, at the very least, given some students the opportunity to succeed. This is an important achievement because it appears that the only other option is simply failure.

I am tired of hearing that we cannot have programs that only help a select group of students, all while these same voices refuse to promote programs that help all students.

I am tired of knowing that the only people who appear to care about education in the South Bronx are charter school founders, rather than officials the community elected.

I am tired of going home to New Orleans, Louisiana and seeing the same thing: a broken public education system that is only somewhat revived by the efforts of charter schools.

When liberal activists say that private school vouchers and charter schools are taking the focus away from fixing public education, they have a point, and I am usually one of those voices.

However, when the government decides that certain neighborhoods are beyond repair, people should be able to help charter schools to help even just a few children.

Saying that we should fix public education is easy, but our application is half-hearted at best and catastrophic at worst.

Maybe these schools will actually teach children to be the leaders who change how we educate our youth.

In the meantime, I cannot possibly be opposed to a legitimate alternative to a failing public education system.