Toxic Charter Schools

By Jules Pizano

In 2019, KIPP SoCal Public Schools, a network of charter schools, tried to build an elementary and middle school in Cudahy, California. What’s the problem with this? The site they chose was toxic and hazardous, formerly used to manufacture metal using processes involving melting, welding, and chemically finishing iron and steel. Examples of environmental racism are not new to predominantly POC and low income communities in southeast L.A. like Cudahy. This neighborhood has dealt with arsenic and lead being released by an Exide battery plant in Vernon and jet fuel being dumped on Cudahy and neighboring cities, literally landing on students during school in 2020. In 2022 the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that approval by the City of Cudahy to build this middle and elementary school on a toxic waste site was unlawful. The safety of the kids was not the top priority for KIPP SoCal and its supporters — they just wanted to spread their schools. 

Charter schools like KIPP receive funding from the state which diverts resources from public schools, ultimately harming the children in those schools. These schools have a demanding application and are able to pick and choose students via lottery and kick out students who violate their policies, which often target POC students. Charter schools, which are often backed by billionaires and operate on a pro privatization philosophy, can be opened by unqualified people, which leads to corruption and not knowing what is best for students. More funding should go into public schools and not the formation of charter schools!