Charter school proposals in Reading deserve more attention

So a guy named Bernard McCree is part of a group that wants to open the “Key Charter School” in Reading, according to a ReadingEagle article.

Is he married to Karen McCree, a shrill Reading School Board member for 14 years who kept winning elections as the district decayed into a near-corpse of rotten finances and morbid curriculum? County records show that a Karen and a Bernard McCree own a house on North Ninth Street.

I think the public should know, and the Eagle reporter should have asked Bernard about Karen, to help his readers connect the dots. Chasing people after meetings is half the fun of reporting.

After winning the election in November, Karen McCree resigned without explanation in early December, soon after a public shouting match with newly elected Board President Rebecca Acosta, the wife of the president of Reading City Council.

I’d like to know who’s behind any charter school proposal.

Well-run charter schools are probably good for needy students, but the death rattles of an urban district like Reading's could attract attention from do-gooders and vultures alike.

At an earlier presentation of the Key Charter School proposal, it wasn’t Bernard McCree but Andrea E. Coleman-Hill, a former administrator in the Reading and Gov. Mifflin school districts. In 2009 she filed an unsuccessful racial discrimination lawsuit against Gov. Mifflin. What's her connection to Karen McCree?

Then, the Eagle reports, Bernard McCree, speaking during the public comment section of the charter-school hearing, said Rebecca Acosta tried to sabotage plans for the Key Charter School to buy the former Central Catholic High School.

“[Bernard] McCree also threw an accusation at one of the founders of Reading's only current charter school. He said Angel Figueroa, one of the founders of I-LEAD Charter School, has been canvassing the city telling people not to sign up for Key Charter School.”

These are some of the people who want to be in charge of educating some of the neediest children in the state. The local newspaper should help us understand it all.