Here’s a list of the most diverse districts in Ohio. Apparently, mine is the top of that list. Yay, if only I had kids. But yeah, the district with the largest minority population (40% black, 20% hispanic, and only 30% white) in the state makes it in the top 10%. Yet the snooty asses in the district to the north, with a 77% white population rank in at #43 talk all kinds of shit about us. (That is the district I spent most of my time growing up in, and that much of my family still lives in.)
You see that there are many there that have good grades. Sure they are in the 100 to 200ish for best districts in the state, but there are 1000 districts in the state, so that still puts them in the top 10-20%. If having a high minority population was so detrimental, then you would see all these high diversity districts to be at the bottom.
How about a solution that somehow keeps white people from being scared of diversity and moving because they think that being in a more white school is better?
These are the types or argument I don’t see. Historically correct, yet out of the times. Unless you are insinuating that we have come no closer to achieving less racism today than back then?
Those are pretty good statistics to go off of. The only thing I’d change, (and maybe I am biased bc I live in a State much larger than Ohio) but I would use districts that are within bussing range of each other to compare. 15 miles?
Another one I don’t get. You , and no one else is going to “change” anyone’s mind. There are a lot of people, myself included, that if given a solution that is inherently workable and doesn’t cause the parents to be given a worse product, then why the hell wouldn’t you do it.
There was such a solution in the podcast. Evidently that isn’t good enough?
edit: Yes, I should have put all these in one post
Less racism? Sure. No racism? We’ve got a long way to go.
Two of the districts that I pointed out are right next to each other. Within 15 miles of here are at least a half-dozen districts. You can look them up, if you want. I’m not sure that that is a good metric, as Ohio doesn’t let you move districts by changing bussing, you actually have to move to change districts.
That is a solution. It doesn’t always work. Black kids are not always welcomed in white schools. Black faculty are not always welcomed in white schools. Black communities are not always welcome in white schools.
Why should a school have to be broken up because of the racial characteristics of the community it is in? Why do we need to split up black communities in order to make white people more comfortable?
Your own cite suggests it comes down to child rearing practices. Asians do better than whites and whites do better than blacks on tests (all else being equal).
It also notes that if a black child is raised by white parents the test gap disappears (as compared to kids of the same income level). The biggest predictor of performance would be their income level. The poorer you are the worse you do on tests. No surprise.
I don’t know the answer either, but I’ll share some anecdata. My daughter’s school, being the top middle school in the district, was selected to receive 1 busload of students from a less socio-economically blessed area. The academics at her school may be at the same high standards; time will tell. So far this year, however, the principal has left. There has been “fight day”, which was apparently planned over social media and sent 3 students to the hospital. There have been several threats against the school, teachers and students, 2 of which were deemed credible. All of them involved the police. One girl was severely injured with a blade in class and none of her classmates told an adult. She was also hospitalized. There are also used condoms littering the playground. Neat!
If you are wondering, yes, families in the neighborhood are actively seeking other schooling for their children.
The larger point is that you have to do more to support these kids than throw them into a different socio-economic milieu with better educational standards. There also needs to be better social support of some kind. I would also suggest that this experiment might work better if they tried it when the kids were younger.
On a more serious note, all that happened because of one busload of kids? Were they welcomed to the school with cheerleaders and such, or were they ostracized due to their background?
I wasn’t there, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer was generally somewhere in between those two extremes. Are “cheerleaders and such” required to keep them from organizing a “fight day” or littering the playground with condoms?
In this case we know the answer - black people, native Americans, and other minority groups in the US have been marginalized due to racist policies and practices and cultural biases. It had nothing to do with the behavior of the minorities.
The schools should be broken up because it is underperforming (if there is a causal relationship with them being in black communities, I suggest you work on fixing those communities) and if the end all be all result we want is education, then that has been shown to work. I’m all for it.
The reason that some of you find this confusing or “complex” is simple. You want to fix the communities. THAT is the complex part. Educating all children isn’t that hard as we already have a semi-workable solution.
Schools are based on property taxes, so yeah, if the tax base decreases, then the schools have less money to work with.
Sunny Daze had an example. iiandyiiii also pointed out examples of communities and institutions that were destroyed by being broken up.
I don’t have an kids in the school system, what refund do I get on my taxes for not using up school resources?
How is it underperforming? It is in the top 10% in the state. Is that not high enough performance for you? Should we break up all the schools that are in the bottom 90%? How does that work?
It is only confusing to those who do not recognize that it is complex. There is no overlap there. You think the solution is simple, and you advocate shutting down schools if they are not in the top 5% or so. That is a simple solution, but it is a terrible solution.
