Separate but Equal? Schooling Of Evacuees Provokes Debate

[Horse with no Name]

This is total insanity. Why don't they just come out and REALLY tell us what they are afraid of!!!

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112666498176540100-DQgawuLyt4mP5qjjI_nsJlY369A_20060914,00.html?mod=blogs

The 372,000 schoolchildren displaced by Hurricane Katrina are stirring an old debate about whether separate education can really be equal.

A number of states, including Utah and Texas, want to teach some of the dispersed Gulf Coast students in shelters instead of in local public schools, a stance supported by the Bush administration and some private education providers. But advocates for homeless families and civil rights oppose that approach.

But officials of some states contend that separate classes would be less disruptive to both school districts and displaced families. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is expected to ask Congress soon for authority to waive McKinney-Vento and other key education legislation, such as the 2001 No Child Left Behind law, which holds districts and schools accountable for test scores of students in each racial group. Without a waiver, the penalty for violating McKinney-Vento is to deny states the funding they receive under the act for homeless education. Although the act was enacted in 1987, the desegregation requirement was adopted in 1994 and strengthened in 2001.

[wildeyed]

1. Just looking to make a fast dollar for the privatization folks.

Businesses from charter schools to distance-education providers are already pressing for permission to teach the homeless in shelters and other makeshift housing, hoping to gain broader acceptance for their approaches to education. Mark Thimmig, chief executive of White Hat Ventures LLC, which educates nearly 5,000 students in Pennsylvania and Ohio via the Internet, said last week that his company would be eager to educate displaced students in the Astrodome.

And this.

Gary Orfield, director of a Harvard University project that monitors school integration, said that segregating a predominantly black group of evacuees could raise "constitutional questions of racial discrimination."

You would think that after the horror of Katrina, elected officials would want to stay away from policies that smack of racism.

[AbbyR]

2. Just a note...

We have a town of a few over 5,000 residents, pre Katrina. All of the evacuees have been enrolled in our regular school programs and they appear to be doing fine - as we expected. They are nice kids and doing well. We're glad to have them.

[Bridget Burke]

3. Houston has been integrating the evacuee kids....

Some are in "regular" schools. There's already been one big fight--but things have mostly been OK. A couple of schools closed because of low enrollment have been re-opened.

Some religious schools have expanded enrollment--often using teachers from NOLA. No government funding--so I see no problem here.

A big benefit mentioned--kids can get back into the "regular" world--out of the shelters.

Bush may have been slow responding to Katrina. But I'll bet his cronies began thinking about how they could benefit before the storm rolled in.

[damntexdem]

4. They need to be stopped. We don't need a permanent 'refugee' ...

population. But in Texas, going to the regular school won't mean much in terms of education -- Texas schools are baaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Yes, they are...

In my district the Katrina survivors are being placed in portables, right along with the rest of the students, where they are receiving a mediocre at best education, right along with the rest of the students.

[WatchWhatISay]

6. Overgeneralization

Suburban school districts in Texas are quite good in many cases. Innercity school districts, and some rural school districts leave a lot to be desired, with some exceptions.

[bobbieinok]

7. list of the 'best' schools in Houston.......all had low or no blacks

this was a list given brother and his wife when they were considering a move to Houston

[Scooter24]

8. In Contrast

take a look at Highland Park HS in Dallas and Westlake HS in Austin. Probably the two best performing high school's in TX and both are predominantly white (97% and 86% respectively)

You can even check out their test scores here-

http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/achievement/tx/3294 (Highland)

http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/achievement/tx/2204 (Westlake)

[Sgent]

9. NOLA

had perhaps the worst school system in the entire country -- one reason that the Catholic system was almost as large as the public system.

Anything would be an improvement.

[2Design]

10. they are worried their test scores will go down with NO students

that is what this is all about -