Reply to Dumb WaPoo Article on Public Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You misunderstand the legal definition of discrimination, which is disparate impact.:

"The problem is not just that students are more isolated, according to the GAO, but that minority students who are concentrated in high-poverty schools don’t have the same access to opportunities as students in other schools.  High-poverty, majority-black and Hispanic schools were less likely to offer a full range of math and science courses than other schools, for example, and more likely to use expulsion and suspension as disciplinary tools, according to the GAO."

We can't continue to stick black and Hispanic kids in segregated, low performing schools in the name of "specialization," or whatever you want to call it.  Separate but Equal was thrown out a long time ago. [/quote]

I must be confused.  As I understand it, "disparate impact" means that if a school has some policy that's race-neutral on its face, but is nevertheless causing a disparate impact, then the government could challenge that policy as discriminatory.  But I've never seen it suggested that the government can force a school district to adopt additional policies to force diversity.  Is that what you're suggesting here?

I must not have been clear about my suggestion.  I'm certainly not proposing to create racially segregated schools.  I'm just saying school districts might decide to quit pursuing a policy of artificial diversity, and instead focus on educating the children who are in each school.  For example, if a neighborhood school is "H/PBH," the school district could spend its money to try to tailor the curriculum to match what the students are ready for, and hire the most qualified teachers possible for that school.  That's not an effort to short-change those students, but rather to match the education to the needs.

By contrast, the diversity-first approach might call for busing half of the H/PBH students across town to a different school, and busing a bunch of other students over to the H/PBH school, to get a mix of races and incomes.  But then, the school district needs to spend more money to ensure appropriate classrooms for all students at two different schools.  Or more likely given how underfunded schools are, the school district cannot afford to offer both schools a full slate of classes, so they both get less.  Seems costly and inefficient.  Maybe the benefits of diversity outweigh those costs, but I'm not so sure.

No easy answers.[/quote]

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