Proof that Whites Want Out- U.S. Schools More Segregated Than Four Decades Ago

[SethCochran]

http://racerelations.about.com/b/2010/02/22/u-s-schools-more-segregated-now-than-four-decades-ago.htm

U.S. Schools More Segregated Now Than Four Decades Ago

In 1954 the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education mandated desegregation of public schools. So, why are 21st century public schools more racially segregated than the schools of the late 1960s? In an article called "The New Racial Segregation at Public Schools," Teaching Tolerance writer Tim Lockette tries to answer this question.

In the piece, Lockette interviews Gary Orfield, director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. According to Orfield, growing numbers of black, Latino and Asian American students attend "intensely segregated" schools, or those where students of color make up more than 90 percent of the student body. School segregation, of course, is directly linked to residential segregation. For example, one-third of black students attend school in places where the black population is more than 90 percent. Class ties in as well, with one-third of all black and Latino students attending schools where more than 75 percent of students receive free or reduced lunch. In contrast, only 4% of white children do.

The trend not only plays out in regions one might expect--such as the South--but in the racially divided Midwest. A drastic reduction in the number of students being bused as well as the rise of charter schools all contribute to school segregation. To boot, the U.S. Supreme Court didn't help matters when in 2007 it determined that school districts can't consider racial diversity as a factor in assigning students to schools. Lastly, the fact that minority children make up more of America's students today than they did four decades ago also factors into the re-segregation of public schools.

In the mid-1960s, 80% of American students were white, Lockette reports. But now children of color make up nearly 40% of U.S. students. "While the student body as a whole has grown more much more diverse, many majority-white schools have seen only a slight bump in their minority enrollment," Lockette writes.

And lest one think that school segregation only affects "those people," research indicates that the fact that students in segregated schools are far less likely to graduate or attend college has far-reaching consequences for the entire nation. Civil Rights Project scholar Erica Frankenberg puts it this way: "If we don't start educating black and Latino students better than we are doing now, we are going to see an intergenerational decline in the percentage of high school graduates in the adult population for the first time ever."

Additionally, both Frankenberg and Orfield argue that evidence indicates that integration could help eliminate the oft-discussed "achievement gap" between white students and students of color. That's because this gap was lowest during the late 1980s and early 1990s. What was unique about this period? It was the point in time when schools were most integrated.

[Rev.Cambeul]

What they mean to do is enforce the integration of Black students into White schools, alter the curriculum as they intend to do in California by removing subjects that Blacks do not excel in, and claim racial intolerance on behalf of teachers that fail Black students. Thereby promoting the same system that they have in Australia where nobody is held back or fails, everybody continues on to the next grade and everybody graduates high school with a piece of paper saying as much; although for some, that piece of paper is no more than a testimony to their imbecilic nature.

I saw the happen myself when I was at high school in the early 80's. As a medium range B student without any desire from either myself or my parents for me to attend university, high school graduation (Year 12) was not important to me, so at intermediate year (Year 10) I dropped out, got a job and went to work. For the next five years, those whom I interacted with that chose to continue on at school until graduation mocked me as a "drop out" and a "loser." I think you can you imagine their chagrin when upon graduation from high school, they were issued a piece of paper that may have been stamped IMBECILE!

Those children were forever branded by their failure in high school. Where me, as an adult, can (and do) go and do as many high school courses as I want. Courses that I not only find an interest in, but courses that are taught in a mature learning environment, with no children and with teachers that understand and respect the knowledge and experience that adult students bring to class. Another benefit is, if I want to, I can do the required amount of courses to gain my own high school graduation certificate and pass with higher marks than those imbeciles of my youth. Who knows, I might even already already qualify for a high school graduation certificate; but I really do not need it. If I wish to go to go to university to study ... journalism, all that is required of me is to take a twelve month long course at the local high school Adult Annexe, combining Years 11 and 12 studying high school journalism, pass that then go on to university.

If American schools go back to enforcing racial integration for schools, my personal experience will undoubtedly become the personal experience of the majority of White students from lower income/working class families, while the well-off will make use of private tutors and home schooling. Segregation whether liberal do-gooders want it or not is here to stay. It just depends on what form it takes; the current system of segregation in US schools or the system that I just outlined.

You can't fight nature and segregation, like it or not, is the only way.

@Cailen.