American schools are more segregated by race and class today than they were on the day MLK was shot

[goblinthebamf]

On MLK Day, Some Thoughts on Segregated Schools, Arne Duncan, and President Obama

Dana Goldstein

American schools are more segregated by race and class today than they were on the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, 43 years ago. The average white child in America attends a school that is 77 percent white, and where just 32 percent of the

Comments

[wrestlingdog]

Oh, Lord, tell me about it. My mom's a special-ed teacher at a vocational school just outside of Camden, NJ. A lot of her students wouldn't pass NCLB if they wrote the answers on their arms.

I don't think anything has turned me off going into teaching as having both my parents as teachers.

[caerfrli]

Yes indeed. My parents were teachers, too and that's why I'm not.

[romp]

Ha! Me too. I've never put it so succinctly tho'.

[bantiarna]

I am rather pleased with my kids school. Its very diverse, we have about a 50% free lunch program. Its a good school though, top elementary in our city. The downside of it being so diverse is a good chunk of these kids spend over an hour on the bus to get there. The BUSES are almost 100% black and hispanic.
I have heard more than one Mom say its impossible for the families to be involved in their kids school because of how far they are bused.
I do not know what the answer is.

[goblinthebamf]

I think the blogger nailed it in that second-to-last paragraph:

Still, what we really need is a multi-pronged approach to attacking segration: First, we need to fight poverty and economic inequality broadly. But while we do that, we also need to use every tool at our disposal--meaning both housing and education law and policy--to diversify our existing neighborhoods and schools.

busing our kids and assuming that they'll be better people than us isn't any good. we need to take a holistic approach to fight inequalities and segregation, and the sooner the better.

[romp]

I experienced this economically when my son's father insisted he go to a prep school on the other side of the city. There was no way for us to bus it out to the school in time for parent-teacher nights *and* they wanted us to have childcare. Then there was the heart surgeon's reaction to hearing my wife was a professional piercer...

I hadn't applied it to bussing but that makes sense. It hurts socially too. My son's friends weren't allowed to come to our house for fear of drive-by shootings. Infuriating.

[romp]

I wasn't aware of those stats.

A woman who grew up in Mississippi in the 1950s and 1960s told me that they had a 2-tier school system with the anglo kids going to private schools. And the public schools barely functioning. I think of that when I hear about charter schools and an end to bussing and closing small schools.