[SmithL]

Laws don't matter, they have an agenda.

[kinoxi]

"Students who are struggling at our high school, many of them didn't come through our system, and therefore did not have an opportunity from early grades to develop that cultural awareness and sensitivity,"

She probably didn't even need to think about that statement. Probably rolled right off of her forked tongue.

[P-40]

"You can imagine systems that lead to integration that are not necessarily racially preferential," she said.

I've heard on some plans based not on race but on income.

[gridlock]

You all may have a hard time believing this, but Berkeley does not require residency for enrollment in public schools. A student does not even have provide a home address when enrolling. So an awful lot of students in Berkeley schools, particularly on the South Side, are from Oakland and other districts where the schools are in terrible shape.

These students are dragging the whole system down. Meanwhile, elementary school slots are being distributed through a lottery system, so parents can find themselves having to drive past three or four schools to drop off their children in a school that is much worse than the one just around the corner from their house.

The result, of course, is that any parent with any options at all is pulling their kids out of the Berkeley public schools. Private schools are springing up all over the place, and the vacancies in the local public schools are being backfilled with students from out of town.

And the Berkeley taxpayer, of course, gets screwed.