Let’s understand what’s happening here … Delhi Charter School is owned by a non-profit. This school receives $6 million in state and federal taxpayer money. They receive this taxpayer money and put in place rules that were in clear violation of Federal law. When they wrote the rules for the school – someone felt it was prudent to reserve the right to require female students to take a pregnancy test and those that either object or show up pregnant could be kicked out (but not the male students who impregnate). Because nothing is better for a kid’s future than to go through life without a high school education with a child from a young age.
The school is making approximately a profit of $842k in 2010 according to its financial disclosure forms; those profits go into a surplus account to be used for future school uses. The school board does not take a salary.
I spoke to the Chairman of Delhi Charter School – Albert C. Christman – about his school’s policy this evening to inquire about the validity of the complaint lodged by the ACLU. He told me that very few students have ever actually gotten pregnant in their school system and that when they did – parents had preferred in the past that the student was home schooled. He said they accommodated the needs of those students and teachers would help make sure the pregnant students did not fall behind in their studies at home and that most of those students would come back to school after they had the baby.
I asked him if the school ever forced a student to leave if they were pregnant and he told me that he couldn’t think of one student who wanted to stay at school when that happened.
He said “we run a pretty good school” and informed me there is a waiting list to get into Delhi Charter. He also told me emphatically that “within a matter of days” his lawyers were going to be fixing this to be in full compliance with state law. He was adamant that whatever inconsistencies there were with this school policy would be fixed immediately and that he hadn’t heard any complaints as Chairman of the Charter school. He also wasn’t aware how the ACLU was informed of this policy.
The ACLU explains this violation of the law HERE:
Welcome to Delhi Charter School, in Delhi, Louisiana, a school of 600 students that does not believe its female students have a right to education free from discrimination. According to its Student Pregnancy Policy, the school has a right to not only force testing upon girls, but to send them to a physician of the school administration’s choice. A positive test result, or failure to take the test at all, means administrators can forbid a girl from taking classes and force her to pursue a course of home study if she wishes to continue her education with the school.
This is in blatant violation of federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
Today, the ACLU of Louisiana and the ACLU Women’s Rights Project asked Delhi Charter School to immediately suspend this discriminatory and illegal policy.
The policy’s complete disregard for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities, is astonishing. Title IX and its regulationsexplicitly mandate that schools cannot exclude any student from an education program or activity, “including any class or extracurricular activity, on the basis of such student’s pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy or recovery therefrom.”
Looking at their last financial statement ending June of 2010 – which you can find HERE – page 7 shows the state of Louisiana paid this school $5.4 million for 12 months in addition to federal grants of $577k. All told – this school made 842k in one year without including the management fees the owners pays themselves (they’re not listed in public records).
32% of their classrooms have anywhere from 27 to 33 kids in one classroom according to financial disclosures. I asked him Mr. Christman about this and he said he wasn’t familiar with those numbers.
By the time children reach 10th and 11th grade – 34% of students are below basic standards in English, 22% are below basic standards in Math, 45% of students are below basic standards in Science, and 35% of students are below basic standards in Social Studies as of 2010 (page 27). Of course – this is the state of affairs in America.
But looking at their contract … which you can find HERE on page 13.
