Biased policies keep minorities out of good schooks

[irishbride2]

I mean, shock of the year, right?


www.tampabay.com/projects/2015/investigations/pinellas-failure-factories/fundamental-schools/


Sorry I'm on my phone.

[NewOrleans]

I will add this article because it is timely and related.

www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/21/potential-grad-applicant-nyu-goes-public-email-turning-down-fee-waiver-request

[NitaX]

I started reading this and my first question was "so how do the kids get to the school?" Because that's the primary issue. Yes, transportation costs a lot of money for school districts. So, naturally, districts don't bus choice students to their schools. In cities where public transit is unreliable how do you get your kid to school and back when your work hours aren't the same?

As I read this, I started thinking - what if we did create the choice/magnet schools, but placed them in neighborhood clusters? And, what if the district provided transportation to those schools? How would that be different than currently providing transportation to nearby schools?

These are my early thoughts, so I'll be back with more as I finish the article.

[mcfelix]

That's terrible. And I cannot believe that school board member said there's no educational benefit to kids of different races learning together.

I firmly believe that racial and socioeconomic diversity are valuable in schools. I went to a magnet school in Atlanta, which was very diverse. I also lived in a county that offered voluntary bussing - the M to M program (majority to minority). It wasn't really a thing to me, just seemed normal. Then my family moved to Maryland. I went to a highly rated public school that was not at all diverse. It was a big change for me - everyone being the same: white, middle or upper middle class, and christian.

I am so incredibly thankful for my school in Atlanta. I can't point to anything specific but I know being in that diverse environment was beneficial to me. It was also an atmosphere where every student wanted to succeed. It was not nerdy to get good grades - you wanted to get a higher score than the kid next to you. There was a healthy competition and it's a travesty when opportunities like that are taken away like they were in the situation presented in the article.