Back to the Supreme Court: racial balance in schools

[ckramer]

America is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse countries in the world. Yet 52 years after Brown v. Board of Education - the landmark Supreme Court decision that struck down segregation - US classrooms are growing increasingly segregated.

In part, the racial divide reflects the persistence of segregated housing patterns and the stifling grip of poverty. But it also reflects national disagreement and confusion over how best to address the issue of race.

Monday, the US Supreme Court takes up two cases that confront the heated debate over race. On one side are those who believe affirmative action and other race-conscious programs are necessary to fight the effects of discrimination and inequality. On the other side are those who believe the Constitution mandates a colorblind approach to race relations - that government programs granting benefits based on a person's race are just as illegal as withholding benefits because of a person's skin color.

At issue in the two cases are race-based student enrollment plans at public school districts in Seattle and in Louisville, Ky. Both plans were designed by the local school boards to voluntarily achieve racial integration to provide a diverse learning environment for the benefit of all students. Both plans are under attack by local parents who say the use of race to maintain a racial balance amounts to an unconstitutional form of government discrimination.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20061204/ts_csm/adeseg

[napi21]

1. racial equality in schools is a difficult thing to deal with fairly.

My 2 grand children live within walking distance of their grade school. Last year, the schoolboard voted to take 2 neighborhoods within the district and move SOME students around to achieve a better balance. One neighborhoodwas mostly white and the other mostly black. The result is that the parents in BOTH neighborhoods are very upset and mad. Children who used to walk to and from school now have to ride the bus for over an hour, andmany no longer go to school with their friends in their neighborhood. The school year is more than half over, and no one seems to be able to point out any advantages to this change.

[ckramer]

2. One of the things we see today is segregation by housing price

That automatically excludes economic disadvantaged families into good schools.

Although busing didn't make sense to me because it didn't help the poor kids' self-esteem.

[saigon68]

3. Scary Roberts will solve the problem

[Solo_in_MD]

4. A honest review of busing will show it was/is/will be a failure

and the money could have been better spent. Noble goal to be sure, but in the end ineffective. The answer is good schools for all, regardless of race or economics.

[mzteris]

5. Wake County, NC

uses income levels to determine school attendance. Eh voila - more balance and diversity - and no charges of racial gerrymandering.


I've always been torn on the whole busing thing, though. "Neighborhood schools" are a wonderful thing. No looooooooooong busrides. Proximity to home. Proximity to friends, etc.

BUT that vs. little enclaves of rich white kids and their oh-so-perfect schools vs. the "project schools" - rundown, less qualified teachers, a majority of kids who don't have the extra-curricular advantages of the non-project kids. (Diet, sleep, exercise, activities...)

??

Of course, it doesn't make that much difference. The rich little white kids - strike white - just rich kids - will go wherever they damn well please - even if mommy and daddy have to start their own school to accomplish that.

[jwirr]

6. "and their oh-so-perfect schools"

You have hit the nail on the head. It is not the racial diversity so much as the money that is spent on the different schools. When busing started that is what it was trying to address. If rich folks kids had to attend inner city schools they would naturally want them better equiped, with good teachers, etc. The problem is still mainly how we fund schools. As long as the rich section of town gets the majority of the money to fund their schools inner city schools will suffer. And all the students regardless of race who go to those schools will have classrooms without textbooks, computers, attractive suroundings and good teachers. If busing is stopped then something else must address the real issues.

[AndyTiedye]

7. Rich Parents Send Their Kids to Private Schools. Middle-Class Parents Move

In general, parents will do anything in their power to get their kids into a better school.

[jwirr]

9. Agreed. That is why addressing the quality of education in poorer

neighborhoods needs to be addressed. Busing still only send a small part of poorer neighborhoods to better schools. I read the book "When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor" by William Julius Wilson and was very interested in his viewpoint.

[mdelaguna2000]

10. school tax based on property values - major scam

Funding schools based on property taxes pretty much institutionalizes inequality in urban versus suburban schools around here. That's how all the affluent families get their kids into richer schools, by buying expensive suburb houses. It drives me nuts. I think they should pool the property taxes across several contiguous counties in a metropolitan area and just distribute them evenly per school/per pupil. LOL imagine the suburban parental screams that would come forth if anyone actually really tried to do that, after they took on twice the mortgage of a fine urban home and a 30 minute gas guzzling commute to work "for the kids" and "for the school district."

Ironically, lots of liberally-minded not-so-rich parents do this out of the futility of it all, and they can barely afford the suburban mortgages. One has to choose - do you put your child into a school where 20% pass their 4th grade math and reading exams, or into one where 90% pass?

The segregation ends up being racial, but that's inextricably linked to economic standing. Non-whites flee too if they can afford it.

[qwlauren35]

8. I am convinced

that we will only have integrated schools when we have integrated housing, and we will only have integrated housing when developers are forced to mix neighborhoods, and this will only happen when residents support it.

I have absolutely no doubt that home buyers still choose neighborhoods based on race, and that race still negatively impacts housing values. This is going to be almost impossible to change until the MAJORITY of white people are comfortable moving into neighborhoods that are 30-50% black.

If you think about it statistically, this is a very real issue. African-Americans are only 14% of the American population, and Hispanics somewhere between 14-18%. We can assume white folks are still 60%+ of the population. As soon as a neighborhood "turns black" or "turns Hispanic", unless a significant number of whites are still willing to live in such a neighborhood, then statistically, the number of potential buyers drops by 80%. There is no way that the housing value can then be sustained with a significant population of the potential buyers having been eliminated.

If you factor in economics, I sense that the numbers get worse instead of better, given that the average wealth of black or hispanic families is lower than that of whites, these families are more likely to grab the lower cost houses first, and potentially depress the price of the higher end houses...

I am fairly convinced that this cannot be changed any time soon, because using drastic measures (busing, redistricting schools, putting project housing in middle class communities) would be aggressively opposed.

It is only going to occur as the number of whites comfortable in predominantly non-white neighborhoods increases by orders of magnitude. And in today's buyer's market, it's not going to happen any time soon.