On Guard: Why do parents choose segregation?

[hack89]

The San Francisco Public Press, a local nonprofit newspaper, reported that out of San Francisco Unified School District's 115 schools, six in 10 have simple majorities of one racial group. Alarmingly, a quarter of district schools have 60 percent or more students of one racial group. The report notes how black students in The City attend mostly black schools, white children attend mostly white schools and so on.

With those demographics, white parents of conscience face a dilemma: Will they choose to racially (and economically) reintegrate schools with their own children, but perhaps sacrifice some education quality, or put their children into the best schools and further segregate the system?

"I think what we discovered is that choice is not effective as a desegregation mechanism," said Rachel Norton, an SFUSD Board of Education commissioner. And increased parent choice in schools is how the district got to this point in the first place, the Public Press found.

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As Preston pointed out, the public schools her son was told he could attend weren't as attractive as the private schools she could afford.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/on-guard-why-do-parents-choose-segregation/Content?oid=2919490

This poses a tough dilemma that is faced by progressives in large cities all across America. How do you balance the needs of your children with the needs of society. I am not sure what I would do in such a situation - I guess I count myself lucky that I live in a small town with one excellent high school so I never had to worry about my kids education.

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. Are white parents the only ones with a choice?

This makes sense if what we're really talking about is community segregation in which poor neighborhoods (and their schools) are mostly people of color.

But the Public Press' reporting showed white flight can be fairly framed as resource flight.

The rich do better, the poor do worse in a constantly perpetuating cycle. Though 33 percent of children in San Francisco are white, only 12 percent of SFUSD kids are white.

Wealthy parents are choosing private schools because

But when it came time to apply for the school lottery (which depends on tiered priorities, not a random drawing), she wasn't offered the schools she felt would help her son achieve.

Preston said it was frustrating knowing dwindling state resources make it hard for public schools to compete with private ones.

She and her husband toured Washington High School and met a history teacher who hammered home the system's inequity. In his classroom, "a ceiling tile was ripped and hanging down. When the teacher broke to talk to us on the tour, he said 'I leave this hole in the ceiling to remind these children that no one cares,'" which he meant to describe lack of school funding statewide.

"I thought that was pretty telling," she said. After Preston put her son in a private elementary school, he graduated from the private Marin Academy three years ago.

I think this is a story less about segregation and more about inequality and the toll it takes on society.

[ND-Dem]

2. i agree with general point, but the teacher sounds like he's making things worse:

'I leave this hole in the ceiling to remind these children that no one cares"

yeah, 'reminding' the kids that 'no one cares' will help a lot. as will 'leaving the hole in the ceiling'.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Sounds like a deeply dysfunctional system. n/t

[ND-Dem]

4. the system in question being our economic system.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Yes... and no.

I can think of no better example of a school district that should be able to be exemplary than the San Fransisco public schools. With a median home selling price of $1 million, there's no financial excuse for cash strapped public schools.

[ND-Dem]

9. Is SFUSD cash-strapped? Can you link me? I read it's exemplary, despite having a higher

population of low-income and minority students than the general population (becoming increasingly true in all school districts these days, where the poorer a/o darker students are increasingly found in public schools and the richer/whiter found in private and charter schools, or jerry-rigged districts funded by the wealthy.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. The history teacher who refuses to replace a ceiling tile apparently thinks so.

Last edited Thu Feb 12, 2015, 05:51 PM - Edit history (1)

The story suggests that if the public schools were better, fewer parents would vacate for private ones.

[Adrahil]

5. My school district is ridiculously white.

I think there is maybe 4 black kids in the entire school. Maybe 10 or so Asian kids. There IS a significant black population in this area, but they are mostly concentrated on the opposite side of town.... literally on the other side of the tracks.

It's really weird for me, since I grew up in an area with a much higher percentage of the population being black. There were black kids in my classes, in the school band, in my scout troop, and in my social circle. Growing up here, my daughter has had extremely limited contact with black kids, and almost none with any non-white kids.

We try hard to bring her up with anti-racist values, but I do fear that she is so insulated that she will have trouble incorporating people different from herself into her social circle.

[hack89]

6. I have the same concerns with my kids

I grew up on Army bases and served 20 years in the Navy so my life was very integrated. Where I presently live the population is 96% white so my kids have no appreciation or real understanding of other races. I try my best but I have no idea if I have succeeded.

[Adrahil]

7. Military bases... great point!

My Dad was in the Navy and retired right next to a Navy base. The intermixing of all kinds of people in the military really shaped my social circle.

My Dad, who was born in the DEEEP South even said that joining the Navy in 1951 basically formed the basis for dismantling most of his cultural racism. He went from a segregated South, to eating, sleeping, and caring for (he was a Corpsman) black sailors and Marines. It had a profound effect on him.

[uponit7771]

11. WOW... so only white parents in that area have a choice? What about parents of color who CHOOSE to..

... have their kids go to either schools?

[hack89]

12. It is a class issue - the white parents are more likely to afford more or better choices. nt

[yuiyoshida]

13. Things must have changed...

When I was in High School, we nicked named our school the United Nations, because we had, so it seemed everyone representing some place on the globe. There were Chinese, (one Japanese, at the time..Yours truly) Two Korean kids, Blacks, Hispanics, five or six Vietnamese, A few Thai students, quite a few Middle easterners, guys from India, One girl from Fiji, three students from Singapore, two from Indonesia, and one from Malaysia. We had kids who had Turkish backgrounds, White kids, One girl who was Hmong, one guy with parents from Cambodia,...I mean you can not get much more of a better mix anywhere, or so it seemed.

We had few problems at that school between kids and everyone got along! By the way, I went to the same school as AsahinaKimi, but she had graduated long after I got there. I loved our school district and our teachers and it was fun going there. Of course, being the daughter of strict Asian Parents, I didn't date till my Senior year..and was lucky I could, believe me!