[Cincinatus' Wife]

Income is the LIBERALS' new integration yardstick.

Schools find new route to diversity ; New integration plans use income to place pupils***Confronting a chronic achievement gap between rich and poor pupils, a growing number of American school systems are aiming for a new vision of diversity: desegregation by income rather than race.***

Cambridge Becomes Latest District To Integrate by Income*** Eventually, school enrollments in the district will be expected to deviate by no more than 5 percentage points from the district's overall percentage of K-8 students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which currently is 40 percent.

Supporters of the shift hope to erase existing family-income disparities between schools' student enrollments, which range from about 21 percent to 72 percent of students qualifying for the subsidized meals.

"This is what most integration will look like in the 21st century," predicted Richard D. Kahlenberg, a school law expert who recently published a book on wealth-based school integration. He is a senior fellow at the Washington-based Century Foundation that advised Cambridge on its plan.***

It's different when it's your ox being gored: In Newton, worries grow over schools***A malaise has seeped into Newton's schools, fueled not only by the proposed cutbacks, but also by social issues in curriculum, exploding special education costs, and fears that the schools' creative extras are being scuttled. Newton's schools have long been synonymous with excellence, but some parents wonder if the armor is getting chipped.

''It's losing its luster. It hasn't lost it yet,'' said Mathew Bardin, parent of an elementary school child. ''It just seems to me there's too much touchy-feely and not enough 1-plus-1-is-2, enough practical education.'' ***

[liberallarry]

There are more "races" than black and white. I'm willing to bet that Asians - especially Japanese - aren't resegregating. Nor are Jews, if you want to consider them a race as they were in the bad old days. The issue is complex. Too bad politics has so polluted it.

[Tuor]

"People are stuck in the old paradigm of race," he said. "But that's outmoded because we have some new legal realities to deal with."

Well, if people are still following it, I guess it can't be "old" now can it (old as defined as no longer current)? And the 'legal realities' never seem to change the social realities, do they? It just leads to more lawsuits and endless absurdity, both of which end up resulting in no real change in the attitudes of the majority of people.

Tuor

[freedomcrusader]

Lee said integration is crucial to improve education...

Education was better when schools were 100% segregated. Not that I'm arguing for 100% segregation. Just pointing out the absolute absurdity that that statement represents.

[camle]

there's a big difference between forced segregation - the kind outlawed decades ago, and voluntary segregation, as in freedom to live where you chose.

attempts to "correct" voluntary segregation are bound to create more ill will than they'd solve.

[PMCarey]

The report's authors say the "resegregation" trend is a result of recent court rulings that dismantled race-based desegregation laws, and also reflects discouragement over stalled integration efforts.

"Race-based desegregation laws" - i.e. mandatory busing.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[archy]

But the most stable districts are also in the South, the report noted, in what it said might be a lingering effect of defunct integration plans that were once heavily concentrated in the South.

Stable? Oh yes; they're that. From todays Memphis Commercial-Appeal:

61% in city fail algebra in new tests to graduate

[Sonny M]

This article didn't want to say something, but I think alot of Freepers here are also missing the point. Alot of this resegregation is voluntary. In alot of cases, alot of black families simply don't want there kids bussed to some white school. It may be, because the kids friends aren't going there, it could be because the school is far and the parents want the kids to be closer, it could be any number of reasons, but alot of black families support the bussing concept, they just don't want it happening with there kids. Generally, you won't see white kids bussed to inner city schools, though it does happen time to time, but usually not for long, as the parents will either pull there kids out, sue to keep them from being sent, or if they have to, move. Another issue is "white flight". I work in real estate and know that no matter what the HUD or Justice Department says, it happens. A school starts a bussing program bringing in minority students, some parents chose to move, then because you now have several houses hitting the market, property values drop, other people suddenly start selling there homes and moving before the prices crash, with falling property values, more minorities move in, since they can afford the homes, and people react and move even more. Minorites also tend to chose to live in the city, most white families as they gain wealth, tend to want to live in the suburbs. This resegregation is totally voluntary, so if ands or buts about it. The courts can't change that, they keep trying, but people sometimes don't want diversity or just don't want there kids riding a bus far far away to a strange place (to them) in the name of diversity.

[Jim Noble]

This is inevitable.

[Plutarch]

These pesky citizens keep doing things that they shouldn't.

Can't we make them integrate?

[Selara]

What this people can not seem to figure out is so simple. Parents and children have had enough of long, time consuming travels to get to school and back.

[spintreebob]

In my area, busing promotes segregation. Schools get more money if they reach a certain threshold of minority or bi-lingual or whatever. So kids from several schools that can't meet the threshold are bused to one school that will then meet the threshold and get the extra money.

That extra money is spent on the latest IEA fad to raise the self-esteem of the bused in students. But they forgot to include the 3Rs. The school flunked the "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" test.

So now the parents have the choice to send their kids to the school closest to them, rather than be bused to that school with all those special programs and extra money. School staff is making parental choice as difficult as possible. The parents can only exercise their choice by filling out forms that beg for an attorney. The forms are only available for pick up during limited hours on limited days. A parent can't pick up a form for a friend. The forms must be returned at a specific time.

The local paper writes as if the complexity is reasonable.

[jimfree]

What tripe! My HS at the time was perhaps 1 percent black. I've worked for and with blacks many times. I respond well to merit.

My wife has been the whitest white girl in many venues. She also is well-versed in African American literature and history.

Arithmetically balanced integration in the early years can be helpful. But it is no more essential to good race relations than junior high sex is to successful parenthood.

Is it diversity if we all have the same proportional experiences growing up?