March 12, 2010

The problem is not diversity, the problem is not enough diversity

Posted at 2:27 PM by Chris Fitzsimon

Wake County School Board member John Tedesco and his fellow members of the Gang of Five trying to resegregate the schools like to point to the struggles of many poor and African-American students in the system as evidence that the current diversity policy is not working.

There are plenty of reasons why that doesn’t make sense, including one that hasn’t received nearly enough attention. Poor students were making significant progress in Wake County for several years until the number of high poverty schools—defined as having more than 40 percent qualifying for free and reduced lunch—began to increase.

That reinforces the very idea behind the diversity policy, that students perform better in economically diverse schools than they do in high poverty schools.

The problem is not the diversity policy. The problem is that the school system has not been vigilant enough about maintaining it.

That was the point made at least week’s public hearing by former Board of Education Chair John Gilbert.  Too bad he is still not in charge. Watch it.

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2 Comments

2 Comments Add yours »

Joe Ciulla 12 Mar 2010 9:26 pm

Chris,

Have you lost your mind? 31% of Wake County schools are high-poverty. And you want to put those kids on buses? Do you have any idea how many thousand more kids would have to be bused to meet your vision of having no high-poverty schools?

Take a look at magnet school performance. ED and minority children do no better in these schools than they do in non-magnets, despite all the bus rides to create those diverse environments.

Stop trying to bus these kids because it makes you feel good. Too many people, for too long, have been perfectly happy to have poor and minority students fail — as long as they fail in a diverse environment.

Chris Hatley 14 Mar 2010 8:49 pm

Chris should read the Cato Institute Research Report on the Kansas City Desegregation Plan to see how $2 BILLION of taxpayer money was squandered on a diversity plan that ended up an abysmal failure. It depleted school resources to the point that half of the schools in the district had to be eventually closed

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