When he was growing up in Harlem three quarters of a century ago,

the schools were good.

In recent years, Harlem has once again produced some very good schools,

charter schools, and he found that intriguing. Today, one day after his 90th birthday, Thomas

Sol on his new book, charter Schools and their enemies.

Uncommon Knowledge Now. Welcome to another special plague time edition of Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson.

Thomas Soul has taught economics, intellectual history, and social policy at institutions that include

Cornell, UCLA, and Amherst. Now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Dr. Sol has published many books,

including his newest volume, just published, Charter Schools and their enemies.

And yesterday, Thomas Sol turned 90.

Tom, happy birthday. Thank you. All right, the argument of

charter schools and their enemies. I'm quoting from the book, Tom.

Charter schools and especially some particular networks of charter schools located in low-income black and Hispanic neighborhoods

have achieved educational results not only far above the levels achieved by most public schools in those neighborhoods.

We're talking about New York City neighborhoods,

but sometimes even higher educational results than those in schools located in affluent white

neighborhoods. No one expected that. Put kids in good schools and they'll learn and in black and Hispanic neighborhoods that comes

as a surprise why should it come as a surprise to so many?

Because they've heard a thousand excuses as to why they can't teach them in these neighborhoods that the kids are poor, that all sorts of things are wrong, except that nothing is thought to be wrong with the public schools themselves

It's always somebody else who is responsible the society should have solved the integration problems.

All right. Let's define terms.

Charter schools differ from private schools because charter schools remain publicly funded. But how do charter schools remain publicly funded.

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