Chancellor Richard Carranza has proposed a school integration plan that will desegregate schools. While the idea is goal worthy, the results may not be. It may cause "White Flight" when they only make up 15% of the student population in the public schools as is.
Various studies show that Black and Hispanic students who are bused to integrated schools do better than those who remain in their segregated schools in minority neighborhoods. These minority students who are bused to integrated schools have lower dropout rates, more likely to go to college, and have better job prospects which allows them to become a positive role model to the next generation family members. So far, all this appears to be positive. However, there are negatives as well.
The most negative is "White flight". When a school district tried to integrate their schools by "forced busing" like the federal government did in the South. White families, rather than allow their children to be bused across the district to lower academic achieving schools, either moved out of the school district, or enrolled them in private or religious schools.. The result was the public schools ended up to consist of high poverty, minority students with reduced political power and consequently, lower school funding.
Moreover, if the school district bused minorities to more White schools, those bused were usually the more academically proficient students, leaving the academically struggling students behind in high poverty and minority segregated schools. The result was that peer pressure of low academic expectations became the rule for those schools and their students.
Finally, by integrating schools it became extremely important to have fully credentialed teachers to sell the unpopular integration plan which resulted in a lower percentage of Black male teachers and less positive adult role models for Black students.
While voluntary busing has a positive outcome for minority students. Forced busing is extremely negative since it causes "White flight", high transportation costs, involuntary school selection, and loss of the middle class in the urban areas. In addition, there is a loss of neighborhood school pride and parent involvement.
Joe Biden is right, federally mandated forced busing was wrong and the negative outweighs the positive. Will the Chancellor's desegregation plan work if there is forced busing across the district? I think not unless he doesn't care about "White flight".
Could you blame these parents? Would you in your right mind want to send your child to a violent low performing school? It's an interesting dilemma because as conservative as I am I believe every child deserves a quality education in this country; something we as a society are not providing everyone. However, I am steadfast against giving a minority a classroom seat at the expense of a white or Asian student if that student hasn't really earned that spot. Furthermore, Carranza and the Mayor's plan jeopardizes the academic integrity of many of the city's most prestigious high schools. As these schools have state charters I would find it difficult for the DOE to change entrance exam requirements. Either way, the NYC DOE is certainly at a crossroads under this administration. It's rhetoric is certainly anti-white, anti-republican, and anti anyone who dares differ with the gam plan.
ReplyDeleteIt absolutely will cause white flight. Families buy their homes in order for their kids to attend certain schools. Imagine the rich families in Forest Hills Gardens or Kew Gardens Hills being bused to attend schools in South Jamaica? Those parents WILL. NOT. STAND. FOR. IT. They will move, borrow a Long Island address from a relative, or put their kids in the Catholic schools. The SUPER rich will opt for the $30k Kew Forest School, but there is NO WAY they are going to allow their privileged spawn to head to the 'hood every day.
ReplyDeleteEven in my middle class household, this took place. I lived in the little cutout of Ozone Park that was switched from the John Adams zone to the Lane zone in the 70s. I was still in elementary school at the time, but I remember the conversation clearly. I was expected to get into a specialized or screened high school in Manhattan, and if we didn't find one that would work for us, my grandparents and my mom would do whatever it took to send me to Stella Maris, Mary Louis Academy, or Christ the King. But there was NO WAY they were going to allow me to take two subways into East NY when I was a 15 minute walk from Adams, which was a "better" (yes, whiter) school. And this mindset was typical of others in my neighborhood.
So, the idea is that minority kids who are bused into non-minority schools do better. Hmmm, what happens if we do the opposite and bus white kids into minority schools? Would the results be the same? I am not kidding here.
ReplyDeleteSouthern schools are better integrated than NYC schools - that's a very low bar, but they pass it.
ReplyDeleteThe discussion has to start with Brown v Board of Education.
"Separate but equal" ≠ "equal"
The public schools are just one of many reasons families are leaving NYC and they are LEAVING IN DROVES..I wonder how long it's going to be before the media starts reporting on this? But the high cost of living, horrible infrastructure, "overcrowded everything" are probably as great a factor as the schools.
ReplyDeleteIf all students and parents were held to discipline and academics standards, forced school integration would not be an issue. The DOE has no standards; pass everyone and accept all sorts of behavior issues.
ReplyDeleteIf a large number of "minority" students is allowed to enter the garden of eden of the specialized high schools, unless it is stage-managed to be a success story, what will probably begin to happen is the parents of these children will start to accuse staff members of all kinds of bias and inappropriate behavior, and will argue about grades, curriculum, and staff diversity.
ReplyDeleteI think, like many others do, that there are many black and latino students who could do well at the best high schools [and handle the workload] and many who cannot. Once too many who cannot or will not do the work are in the school, then the school staff will be blamed, and the parents of the other students will also complain, and they will be "labeled" for doing so. Asian parents specifically should be in touch with political and legal representation.
I do not work in a specialized high school. Based on what looks to be coming, I am glad I do not.
6:30 AM Exactly!!! They hold the black and Hispanic students to a completely different standard. Which in itself is racist in nature and a disservice to those in these communities. To me a receiving a high school diploma means you are ready for college level work. Unfortunately the NYC DOE has duped these communities into thinking that they are worth more. The whole thing is a travesty in my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteWell, Carranza is of Mexican descent and those of Mexican descent have been in the USA longer than many others. Mexicans have had a track record for fighting for equality. Many may not know that before Brown v Board of Education, there was Mendez v Westminster School District which made the case that school segregation is in violation of the constitution. This was the precedent to Brown v BOE. His heart is in the right place. Rolling out a plan will be the challenge. Everyone needs to do their part. Teachers and schools are willing, but parents and students need to do their part. S-T-U-D-Y
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 3:15- you described my public school experience in the early 70's perfectly. I attended a supposedly gifted and talented school in district 19 (the school turned out to be neither), where I was bullied regularly, and ultimately pushed down a flight of stairs. My parents decided then that the only option for JHS was to move to Long Island, or go to private school. So, Kew-Forest it was, at a whopping $1200 a year.
ReplyDeleteIf Carranza keeps it up, it's the end of the NYC public school system as we know it. The joke is, the very children he hopes to serve are the ones he's doing the greatest disservice to.
Why is this even a question??? Hell YEA they're pulling their kids! Wouldn't you??????
ReplyDeleteNo way will Carranza or DeBlasio ever be able to accomplish desegregation. They will do the minimum, declare a victory and move on. Nothing major will change. IF they were to ever truly desegregate top schools and low performing schools then parents of higher performing students will not enroll their kids into desegregated schools.
ReplyDeleteFor example, my Nina (half-white/half-Asian) is not going to go into any school my DeShawn is attending. NO WAY - NO HOW!!! Nina is one of the top performing 8th graders heading into Stuyvesant. IF they ever try to force her into the same school as DeShawn - I would enroll her in a "segregated school".
I am sorry. I love my DeShawn but he's not into school.
Clueless Carranza and his minions do not have a clue as to what goes on in the schools. They should set the example and have their own children or family members bused to the worst schools. Then I may give them a little credence.
ReplyDelete"It may cause "White Flight" when they only make up 15% of the student population in the public schools as is."
ReplyDeleteThe 'hunt down the last white child' program is entering its terminal stages. I really wonder why people even talk about 'segregation' in places like NYC or LA anymore. There are almost no white kids left. Are those 'activists' really that stupid?
Why isn't a school 'diverse' if it has equal numbers of Asians and blacks, for example? Or large numbers of Indians, Latinos and Arabs? Asians outscore whites and on average have more money than whites! Why is it only whites who must be singled out all the time?
Furthermore, no one really addresses the negatives to nice, average white kids from having inner-city POC bussed into their bucolic suburban schools or vice versa. Leftists will say silly things like 'white kids benefit too because they are exposed to POC!" Hogwash!
My cousin was a very nice girl. She was sent to an urban school from junior high onward. She wound up getting pregnant, twice, from a 'diverse' classmate, who later dropped out of the picture, and she started taking drugs and talks like a ghetto queen now. She is such a mess as opposed to how nice and civilized she was before. This did not have to be.
Leftists will play down the real reason whites move away when 'diversity' comes to town. They say all the whites are evil racists who don't want to share. No, 'diversity' often brings chaos, drugs, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, rape, crime and a lower vista about what is possible in life. Then those same whites are taxed enormously to fund welfare programs and affirmative action schemes.
My own grandma lived through the transformation of her once nice, orderly city from mostly white to almost all 'diversity' in the 1940s and 50s. She said it was like a slow motion atomic bomb, destroying block after block. The people fled not because of racism, but because they were victims of crime and danger. Who would want to live like that? Whites lost billions of dollars in property value by having to decamp and set up new settlements in the suburbs.
White liberals, oh so righteous, tend to live in either all white parts of town or in gated enclaves, and they generally send their kids to mostly or all white schools or private schools. The working class people are literally sacrificed on the alter of 'diversity' so elites can feel smug. When the truly privileged children of elites move back into cities, to neighborhoods their grandparents and great parents were forced out of by POC crime, the POC get all racist on them and say, "The white folks are movin' in and gentrifying, we must fight their entrance."
The irony of the situation is lost on them. When whites protested the entrance of POC it was racist. When the POC protest whites moving in, they are social justice fighters stopping evil whitey. Spike Lee was quoted a few years ago in the NYT talking about gentrification (whites moving in) saying it was changing the character of black neighborhoods and had to stop. Again, irony, as those neighborhoods used to be white ones.
This madness will only accelerate. Social engineering is not allowing races to mingle organically and naturally. It is forcing things when people do not change overnight. Yes, more whites will send their kids to private schools because who wants their kid sitting next to a gang member or a wanna-be? And besides the few specialized schools, where are these' wonderful' schools in NYC that POC are under-represented? I live in an area that is 50/50 white/Asian, and the local middle school is like 90% black and latino.
I fear Carranza's crusade will make things worse for all.
9:23 AM - You describe poverty stricken neighborhoods which is cross-cultural. Poverty affects many factors unfortunately. When middle-class kids interact with kids from lower income students that live in lower socio-economic neighborhoods the unfortunate experiences that your young cousin experienced is a possible consequence. Kids are not fully developed and commit many mistakes especially when it is so easily accessible. As a society, the glamorization of drug lords, gangster rappers, gangs, etc can negatively affect children and youth. As someone that is a female hispanic that grew up near Washington Heights it was difficult to come out of the neighborhood looking beyond what you see on a daily basis. I was fortunate to have a family that although living in that area, my parents grew up in middle to upper-middle class families in their home country that valued work and education. Please do not portray people of color or 'diversity' as "often brings chaos, drugs, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, rape, crime and a lower vista about what is possible in life". There are many 'people of color' that were raised in lower socio-economic households and have prospered. That takes strength, perseverance and a strong character. To all the teachers and support staff in our NYC public schools, please continue to provide support, encouragement and values. As for parents, parents need to take their role very seriously if education is truly valued in their family and monitor their children. Having children a huge responsibility and parents need to continue to be the driving force of their child's future in partnership with schools and the community.
ReplyDelete1:30 AM - You describe the key to your success, which was a good family with a good work ethic. Such families find their way out of tough neighborhoods on their own merit, as you did.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is not racial, but more socio-economic. Middle class white people don't want to live around white trash either. Black middle class people don't want to live around ghetto people, etc. The way all the 'desegregation' efforts are being done however is basically a blanket throwing of anyone and everyone around, typically at quiet white neighborhoods.
This is what makes people alarmed. There was an article in the NYT last year about how middle class neighborhoods around Detroit are up in arms because low class ghetto dwellers from the city are flooding in and bringing trouble. And this was black folks complaining about other blacks.
People need organic change that sometimes spans generations. Throwing the good and bad altogether in one shot just makes people panic, as many Mexicans in Mexico are finding out (and have complained about a lot recently) as Mexico is enduring waves of illiterate people washing over their nation too.
What NYC DOE is doing to students of low socio-economic means is a travesty. They are graduating without being properly prepared to do college level work. Many students can meet the academic demands if together as a society education is valued. It's true, children and youth are not fully developed as yet, therefore, are greatly influenced by what society offers them: crappy music, lower academic expectations while stating they actually met rigorous work, adults displaying criminal behavior (what wonderful role models), etc. The goal is to have high expectations. Kids remember the times when teachers and school staff have spoken to them about meeting higher standards. Some will meet those expectations, some will meet them later in life and some never will. As educators, if working with students from low socio-economic means, should expose students to an array of possibilities/opportunities. Parents most definitely have to do their part. It is unfortunate when some parents do try and then there are so many others that do not.
ReplyDeleteDetroit, Boston and Yonkers are juat three examples of the failed policy of integration by bus that was tried in the Seventies. In Detroit African-American kids said that they didn't want to leave their neighborhood and kids from the nearby "white" suburban district just didn't get on the buses. In Boston there was tremendous rancor and anger. The plan didn't last very long. Court ordered busing in Yonkers never happened despite the constant orders coming from a judge.
ReplyDeleteSome of the geniuses at Tweed need to read a couple of Diane Ravitch's books. They will see that there is nothing new under the sun. We can hope that with a new mayor Chancellor Carranza will go back to being in a mariachi group. Oh wait - he can't - most mariachi bands are not diverse enough for him!
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