Quote:
Originally Posted by preciousjeni
At the risk of sounding stupid, what are the cons of this merger? How would it affect the more affluent students and families? I'm of the (perhaps naive) opinion that high quality education should be standard and that all students should be challenged to excel.
I never attended a public school myself and I am not at all knowledgeable about the politics of this situation.
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It's just as the article summarizes. When you merge "haves" and "have nots," you are merging different levels of resources, knowledge, and achievement. Just as there are honors classes at the middle school and high school (and collegiate, at some institutions) levels, there are school districts with a higher quality of education, higher test scores, and more resources. When you merge, you are either telling the "have nots" that they need to step their game up; or telling the "haves" that they need to step their game down.
The school districts and schools need to carefully outline and work toward a positive outcome. They cannot just merge when these districts have been segregated for years for a reason. This is noncoincidentally highly correlated with social class and race and ethnicity. Therefore, there are some "haves" who simply do not want social class and race and ethnic diversity. It defeats the original purpose of the division.
<------ A product of one of many public school systems in the country that was intentionally segregated by social class and race in the 1950s-1960s. My schools were predominantly white until social class and race diversity began. Then (predictably) white flight/capital flight happened, class/race homogenous communities moved further from the city, new schools were built, districting and zoning were shifted, and the shitstorm continues.
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