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Study: Schools Resegregating by Race
yahoo.com ^ | Aug 9, 2002 - 5:20 AM ET | JAY LINDSAY, AP

Posted on 08/09/2002 6:48:26 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

BOSTON (AP) - Almost 50 years after state-sponsored school segregation was outlawed, public schools are becoming increasingly divided by race, even as minority populations increase nationwide, according to a new report.

The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University found integration between whites and blacks to be decreasing or steady in all but a handful of the nation's largest school districts over the last 14 years.

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.

"I think a lot of people think that nothing can be done, and the efforts have failed," said Chungmei Lee, a co-author of the report.

Lee said integration is crucial to improve education and prepare students to live in a diverse culture.

Attorney Chester Darling, who represents parents fighting a desegregation policy in Lynn, Mass., questioned the study's assumptions about diversity's value. He also said any new push to create school diversity must be driven by parents and not government.

"When you have a government involved in enforcing a particular form of diversity, then you have a government making decisions that are illegal," he said.

The report measured the changing "exposure index" between races in school districts with enrollments larger than 25,000. For instance, a black-white exposure index of 23 percent means the average black student attends a school where 23 percent of the students are white.

In a sample of 185 of the districts, black exposure to whites increased in only four of the districts between 1986 and 2000. Latino exposure to whites increased in only three districts. White isolation increased in 53 districts, the report said.

The study found resegregation to be the most rapid in Clayton County, Ga., where the average black student goes to a school that is 23.1 percent white, down from 68.7 percent white in 1986.

The 20 most rapidly resegregating school districts are concentrated in the South, with eight in Texas and three in Georgia.

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.

Lee said successful integration is simply a matter of balancing resources, which are often in short supply in the poor neighborhoods where many minorities live. The report recommends combining city and suburban school districts into one entity, joining various racial groups in the process.

Rich Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation, a New York-based think tank, said communities need to focus on income disparities if they want to legally desegregate.

"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."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: educationnews; socialengineering
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
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.
21 posted on 08/09/2002 8:55:33 AM PDT by Sonny M
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To: Black Agnes
Thanks. Just telling the truth.
22 posted on 08/09/2002 9:10:38 AM PDT by Khepera
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To: Nat Turner
For one thing I didnt have a black mammy! I had a black lady whom was a friend of my mothers from church. She also paid her. Blacks are a majority in places like Atlanta, New Orleans and other places in th4e south. Take the welfare,foodstamps,and free tansportation and they would have move and get a job. I am not anti black I am anti blacks that think I are anyone else owes them money or anything else. If you think that is racial so be it. By the way I took emergency leave and hitchiked 1700 miles when your so called "mammy" passed away.
23 posted on 08/09/2002 9:32:13 AM PDT by cksharks
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To: *Education News
Index Bump
24 posted on 08/09/2002 9:45:40 AM PDT by Free the USA
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Comment #25 Removed by Moderator

To: superdestroyer
Which set of "good old days" are you referring to? Don't get your point.
26 posted on 08/09/2002 9:47:42 AM PDT by Irene Adler
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To: Sonny M; All
Interesting perspective... thanks for the post.




In my part of Central California over here on the West Coast, it's mostly Hispanics. 70% of the students in my high school are Hispanic, and probably about 27% are white. But it isn't like all of the whites are leaving for private schools; in fact, I know very few people who do. Rather, I believe it comes down to the fact that Central California is the agricultural capital of the world. We have a lot of farm laborers from Mexico who are attracted to the opportunities that America provides. Many Hispanics do not mind the hard labor in exchange for a good paycheck. Also, you are not required to learn English or have a college education to pick grapes. So, from my experience, I would say that it is simply the region that determines the voluntary segregation in schools. If the area has a lot of whites, the school will have a lot of whites. If the area has a lot of blacks, the school will have a lot of blacks. Doesn't that sound logical?
27 posted on 08/09/2002 9:49:16 AM PDT by panther33
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Comment #28 Removed by Moderator

To: superdestroyer
I wasn't talking about a specific school.
29 posted on 08/09/2002 9:51:17 AM PDT by freedomcrusader
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To: Sonny M
From what I have seen, more blacks are living in the suburbs than was the case when I was a "yoot." Of course Nassau County, NY (where I grew up) remains the most segregated place I have ever lived despite a growing black population. So much for "liberal, open-minded" New York.
30 posted on 08/09/2002 9:53:37 AM PDT by Clemenza
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Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: Cincinatus' Wife
This is inevitable.
32 posted on 08/09/2002 10:01:57 AM PDT by Jim Noble
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To: liberallarry
The issue is complex.

Is it? People like to be with their own kind but they what the best in educational opportunities for their children.

We see people living in groups of their racial peers across this land by choice. Trying to make people diverse when they don’t want to be is the only thing that makes this issue complex.

Too bad politics has so polluted it.

How true!

Democrap’s home page

33 posted on 08/09/2002 10:14:58 AM PDT by Democrap
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To: cksharks
"Blacks." "they." "them."

The broad brush continues.

The govt caint force me to like or live with blacks.

Good, cause I certainly wouldn't want to live with you, either. I for damned sure don't care if you like me.

34 posted on 08/09/2002 10:40:58 AM PDT by rdb3
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To: liberallarry
There are more "races" than black and white.

Not according to the Feds. Many of the laws go back to the 60's when minorities were primarily blacks.

My county is under a federal consent decree which means the Feds oversee schools for the appropriate ratio of minorities (ie. blacks and whites). Yes, they have messed up the local schools.

35 posted on 08/09/2002 10:46:30 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: liberallarry
free choice is like free education..There is no such thing. All choices have costs. Education is costly and good education is usually more costly

Precisely. Rational people don't purchase a 400 thousand dollar house in a "good" school district and take lightly to having their kid shipped 30 minutes away to a poorer school district just to achieve some kind of abstract numerical "parity".

You could of course fund schools through sales tax and redistribute funding equally, but then the "rich" districts will just voluntarily fund a supplemental budget to kick the quality of the schools back up to what they were befor. And vote down any further increase in sales tax, of course.

So its quite a connundrum, isnt it? You could , however, issue vouchers or prop. tax rebates, and those "disadvantaged " students who can meet the requirements of a private school could transfer out of their degraded public school, but that will always leave somebody behind anyway, wouldnt it? Not everybody can meet the extra tuition, entrance exam reqts etc, can they? Egalitarianism is such a difficult and elusive goal, but as long as you got your hands on the Public's purse strings, what is there to lose?

36 posted on 08/09/2002 10:49:34 AM PDT by Nonstatist
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To: ladylib
I read that last year about 30 private schools popped up all over Prince Georges County.

That sounds beievable to me. .. I wouk in PG County, and there are 1100 people in my company, and I dont know a single one who lives in PG County. Thats not say there arent a few, but it does indicate that there something amiss here. There lots of open space and real estate is the cheapest in the area, but the schools suck. Dumbed down and mismanaged and run by neo-Marxist ideologues (theres a high school in Laurel that had 50 % white kids, but the beauracrats thought that was "unfair", so half those white kids were bussed to other high schools)

37 posted on 08/09/2002 10:57:55 AM PDT by Nonstatist
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To: cksharks
you know Mr Shark-- IF YOU TRY ANY HARDER NOT TO SAY YOU ARE ANTI-BLACK IM GOING TO THINK YOU ARE LIBERAL LOL

and since we are on the subject of thin pale skin you can try living in SWEDEN I dont think too many of us "colored folk" dont live there...
If you are going to live in the South you better get used to being around black people

you dont have to like us but you do have to deal with us -- and try to remember Im on your side . . .

38 posted on 08/09/2002 11:07:18 AM PDT by Nat Turner
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To: Nonstatist
I made my comment because I consider universal education to be as important to a modern state/society as a good army or an honest judiciary or decent public discourse. In fact, it makes the latter three possible.

The only way it can be achieved is through some redistributive scheme - the wealthier must subsidize the education of the poorer. The problems are just as you outlined. But the alternative is worse.

Education doesn't have to be "equal" across all dividing lines. It just has to be good and getting better, and has to guarantee that those with real talent will advance - just as is the case with sports or beauty.

39 posted on 08/09/2002 11:09:36 AM PDT by liberallarry
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To: Nat Turner
The black and white situation needs to be talked about in the open.I dont care if you are green or polkadotted I dont owe you are anyone else anything. I deal with blacks every day,but they are the ones who have jobs and dont beg for handouts from other people. Like I said if that makes me a racist so be it.
40 posted on 08/09/2002 11:40:51 AM PDT by cksharks
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