Carolina Journal’s Dan Way writes about the vehement opposition to a public charter school proposed for Chapel Hill. The proposal comes from the daughter of first African-American Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee. This opposition is unbelievably sad. And, of course, who stands to suffer? The very children the defenders of the status quo say they want to help.

Former Chapel Hill Mayor and State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee — the first black mayor elected in a predominantly white Southern City since Reconstruction — said he is surprised the NAACP is using a diversity argument to oppose plans to open a K-8 charter school bearing his name in Chapel Hill this August.

“I thought that was a weak argument and one that should not ever be elevated above educating our kids,” said Lee, who also is a former state senator and current executive director of the North Carolina Education Cabinet. The debate, he said, “should be about choice and it should be about education, and not about diversification.”

The NAACP’s opposition to the charter school, designed to close the academic achievement gap hampering minority children in Orange County, is emblematic of a national schism among blacks, an education expert says.