Reply to Cliff Notes summary of MCPS boundary study fight?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

The rhetoric you choose matters. You can try to have a conversation with people whose opinions differ from yours, or you can try to demonize them. [/quote]

Please tell us which words to use, then. Because "diversity" won't do it, either. "Study" doesn't even do it.[/quote]

[b]Why won't "diversity" do it? [/b]No MoCo school is "segregated" under the traditional meaning of the term. The student body of Wootton High is 56% nonwhite. Churchill is 50% nonwhite. Walter Johnson High is 46% nonwhite. BCC is 43% nonwhite. And even Whitman is about a third nonwhite. Nobody is going to be integrating these schools -- because they are already integrated.

So really what proponents are talking about is redisributing students to flatten out FARMS levels -- or at least make the differences in FARMS not so stark. Because race and class are correlated in this country, of course that may mean changes in the racial mix of the student bodies at various schools. But make no mistake, every school in MCPS --- EVERY school -- is already racially integrated.

Some less charged words/phrases include:

- Increasing socioeconomic diversity
- Reducing high concentrations of impoverished children in schools
- Achieving better economic balance in student populations

Better yet, focus the rhetoric on addressing "school capacity" issues by shifting students from "overcrowded schools" to "undercapacity schools".

That problem, and solution, is one that we all can relate to, even if we might not agree on the exact solutions proposed. Given that, in general, schools in wealthier areas are more likely to be at capacity or overcapacity, and schools in poorer areas are more likely to have extra space for more students, addressing imbalances in school capacity should help address imbalances in FARMS rates at the same time.

[/quote]

Ask the people who are pitching fits about it.

And your "better yet" solution not only avoids the issue, but ignores one of the specific aims of the analysis.The analysis is about capacity and geography; it is also about demographics.[/quote]

It doesn't ignore it, because if you address capacity you will of necessity be adjusting demographics at the same time -- and probably in ways that are more palatable to opponents of redistricting than long-distance busing to "desegregate" schools.[/quote]

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