Supreme Court Decision: Limiting Racial Diversity in Public Schools

[Conskeeted7]

I totally see where you are coming from, Summerchild. I agree that an important point is being overlooked. It's not about having diverse school populations simply to have Black and White children sit next to each other. It's about having access to the resources that can provide a more equal education. That has less to do with race and more about household income and socio-economic status, in my opinion.

[shinerbock]

Originally Posted by Conskeeted7

I totally see where you are coming from, Summerchild. I agree that an important point is being overlooked. It's not about having diverse school populations simply to have Black and White children sit next to each other. It's about having access to the resources that can provide a more equal education. That has less to do with race and more about household income and socio-economic status, in my opinion.

Not to intrude on your thread, but do you have any off the wall idea-solutions? I think this is a really interesting topic and I'd love to keep the ideas flowing.

[Jody]

Summerchild

Brown vs. Board of Education signaled the end of forced segregation. The lawsuit was originally brought because Brown couldn't go to the school in her neighborhood because she was black. She was forced to go a school outisde her neighborhood based solely on the color of her skin.

Part of the problem was that since all black children were forced to go to the same school, irrespective of where they lived, the school had less than steller resources. Forced busing was a means to ensure that school resources were equally distributed.

I would encourage everyone to really understand all the underlying issues in this case, namely, a black girl, couldn't go to the school closest to her (like next door) BECAUSE she was black.

Legal scholars, how can people look up the original case? I so often see discussions on this Board spiral out of control because sometimes people based their opinions on flawed information. Granted, they could have the same comments irrespective of the factual data, but still, they should at least be clear about the basic facts underscoring the issue.

[SummerChild]

Hi Soror,
I read the case while I was in lawschool. You are right that I have mixed up the facts as to where the child was going to a segregated school.

Shinerbock asked about solutions. I think that one solution might be to divide up all of the educational resources for a state and give a certain dollar amount per child. Give the same dollar amount for each child.

That way, kids are not receiving inferior books, facilities, etc. according to how much money their parents pay in taxes in a particular neighborhood. It's fair to the kids. The only problem is that that's not really fair to the parents the have to pay the taxes.

It seems to me that such a system would, however, incentivize the rich to either get all kids more $$ per kid or communities may become more economically diverse because there would be less incentive to move to a very expensive neighborhood when your kid will not have resources that are any better than the inner city kid's neighborhood.

The rich people who don't like it can then just pull their kids out and place them in private school if they want ... but the inner city kids will STILL get a decent amount of $$ per kid, right?

Teachers and people familiar with school finance, would that solution work?

Originally Posted by Jody

Summerchild

Brown vs. Board of Education signaled the end of forced segregation. The lawsuit was originally brought because Brown couldn't go to the school in her neighborhood because she was black. She was forced to go a school outisde her neighborhood based solely on the color of her skin.

Part of the problem was that since all black children were forced to go to the same school, irrespective of where they lived, the school had less than steller resources. Forced busing was a means to ensure that school resources were equally distributed.

I would encourage everyone to really understand all the underlying issues in this case, namely, a black girl, couldn't go to the school closest to her (like next door) BECAUSE she was black.

Legal scholars, how can people look up the original case? I so often see discussions on this Board spiral out of control because sometimes people based their opinions on flawed information. Granted, they could have the same comments irrespective of the factual data, but still, they should at least be clear about the basic facts underscoring the issue.

[Conskeeted7]

Shinerbock - I think that the solution comes from recognizing the true problem. And, in my opinion, it has nothing to do with race. It's all about economics.

I was educated in a school system that was majority Black. So, race had nothing to do with one school being better than any other. However, there were vast differences in the schools based on the neighborhoods. The resources were simply not available to the students in the poor neighborhoods.

For example, we had computers in the classroom since at least 4th grade (I went to a k-8). We also had a golf team, tennis team, and annual trips that required passports. We had new school books every year, a huge gym and auditorium and just a pretty school building in general.

My mom was a guidance counselor in a low income area and the school was using books I'd used in 5th grade for their 7th grade class. There weren't enough desks for all of the students. The gym didn't even have nets in the basketball hoops. There were only jump ropes and basketballs. Those students weren't given an opportunity to excel. Those that did well were still not doing what their peers across the city were doing. The standard of excellence was unrealistically low, setting these children up for failure.

This was all in the same school district. If we had been forced to 'share the wealth' there wouldn't have been just 1 or 2 good schools in the district. We all could have gone to good schools. So, my solution is equal funding and opportunity to all schools within a district. If there are programs or classes offered at one school but not another, allow students to be bussed half days for them. Just give them the access. It's unfair to expect students at lesser performing schools to succeed when we're not giving them the same tools as those who are succeeding.

[mccoyred]

Originally Posted by shinerbock

Not to intrude on your thread, but do you have any off the wall idea-solutions? I think this is a really interesting topic and I'd love to keep the ideas flowing.

Real simple. Level the playing field by:

1) Mandating that the federal, state and local governments must provide the exact same resources to all schools; any additional can be infused directly from the parents whose children attend the school.

2) sending children to their neighborhood public schools (maybe just through middle school) so that they can be close to familiar resources. All public high schools in a district should compete for students by test scores and magnet programs to allow exposure outside of a child's own community.

In neither of these recommendations should race become a factor. In fact, if these are implemented, race will no longer need to be a factor. So what if the lower grades are non-diverse? The schools will reflect the neighborhoods! As for the high schools competing, I think that diversity will take care of itself in this proposed type of environment.

[mccoyred]

Originally Posted by Conskeeted7

I totally see where you are coming from, Summerchild. I agree that an important point is being overlooked. It's not about having diverse school populations simply to have Black and White children sit next to each other. It's about having access to the resources that can provide a more equal education. That has less to do with race and more about household income and socio-economic status, in my opinion.

This post and the post before it are what I have been saying for years! My black child will not learn better or more if they sit next to a white child. However, given the same resources (financial, networking, exposure, access to information, etc.) each child will reach their individual potential at whatever level it happens to be.