Fear of `resegregation' fuels unrest in NC

[and-justice-for-all]

RALEIGH, N.C. – In the annals of desegregation, Raleigh is barely a footnote.

Integration came relatively peacefully to the North Carolina capital. There was no "stand in the schoolhouse door," no need of National Guard escorts or even a federal court order.

Nearly 50 years passed — mostly uneventfully, at least until a new school board majority was elected last year on a platform supporting community schools.

The result has been turmoil.

The superintendent resigned in protest. A coalition of residents and civil rights groups filed suit. Months of rallies, news conferences and candlelight vigils against the feared "resegregation" of the state's largest school district culminated in the recent arrests of four activists for refusing to vacate board members' chairs.

Locals are lecturing Northern transplants about the Jim Crow past; white school board members are quoting Brown v. Board of Education to the NAACP.

"We're not going to sit idly by while they turn the clock back on the blood, sweat and tears and wipe their feet on the sacrifices of so many that have enabled us to get to the place we are today," says the Rev. William J. Barber II, head of the state NAACP chapter and one of the four protesters arrested for trespassing at the June 15 board meeting.

But John Tedesco, part of a new board majority, says it's the NAACP and others who are "trying to play with the old '60s playbook for rules for radicals" to preserve a policy that is no longer needed, and wasn't working anyway.

"This isn't 1960," he says.

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100718/ap_on_re_us/us_busing_fuss
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Some of the accompanying comments are trifling to say the lease:

love 1 minute ago Report Abuse
"if you look in world history books back 2000 years to present,mixing cultures never worked! it is un-natural!!!!!! nothing wrong with segregation! whats bad about it!!"

Nightrunner 2 minutes ago Report Abuse
"The NAACP has become an irrelevant racist hate group stuck in the 1950s. Its looking for any way they can crawl out of the hole their in. With declining contributions from whites and Corporations who were always their biggest contributors. Every one knows black kids never hang out together with the white or Hispanic kids at school anyway; they seem like they want to be away from everyone else. Its like they dislike everyone who isn't black. The schools are already"segregated" in a social way so whats the big deal?"

genetic jackhammer 3 minutes ago Report Abuse
"They should eliminate Fathers day for the African-American community. Heck.....nobody in the African American community knows who their Daddies are. Why do you think everyone refers to the childrens parents as 'babies mommas'?"

And the shit just gets worse and worse and dumber and dumber...

[UndertheOcean]

1. busing kids to far aways schools doesn't sound like the right thing either ..

[mmonk]

9. How about busing them into poor neighborhoods

as a way to not let inner city schools deteriorate, but thrive in academic programs like their suburban counterparts and allow for even distribution of resources? That was one of the basis points of the diversity plan that was in place.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Black kids never hang out together with the white or Hispanic kids at school??

Wow. That is completely opposite of every school I have ever taught in. The kids not only hang out but get along just fine. It's the adults who have the hangups about mixing races.

[dsc]

4. honestly they do tend to self segregate at the schools I have taught at

other than sports tables, the rest tended to be one race in our lunch rooms.

[drm604]

5. All the more reason to try to keep them together.

That should be a reason to try to get them to interact more, rather than an excuse to segregate them further.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. And marching band (depending on the school)

[drm604]

3. "rules for radicals"

What is it with "rules for radicals" lately? I'm seeing this everywhere lately in quotes from right-wingers. It's like they're a bunch of parrots. This must be a talking point that came from some "think" tank.

I think most of those people would consider me radical (I don't consider myself radical at all, but they would), and I never even heard of the damned book until they started talking about it.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. The real issue is the achievement gap, which remains unresolved

Originally the thought was sending inner city students to the suburban or better schools would address that, an educational version of a rising tide lifts all boats. It has not worked. Its quite understandable to want to end expensive transport schemes if they are not producing results. For those who think more $$$ will solve the issue, look at Kansas City.

We (as educators, parents, or a nation) have not yet found the tools to address the problem. There is clearly not a single magic bullet. Its one of my main fears looking into the future.


The comments on the article are not trifling, but very troubling...however it looks like a spell checker change.....

[mmonk]

8. In Raleigh, its system of busing + magnet schools worked

in that many previous schools with questionable results actually became nationally recognized in terms of academic success and diversity.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. Magnet programs are great for some, but it really has not closed the achievement gap

Enabling the willing/gifted is a great thing, but in the long term we need to elevate the rank and file as well

[mmonk]

11. But when leveling resources, poorer schools are saved

and ditribution of learning materials equalized (I'm a disability advocate, not a promoter of the gifted).

[ProgressiveProfessor]

12. Additional reources are often given to the poorer performing schools or districts with minimal

improvements, KC being the most extreme case. Again, districts varies widely among the states. Also if it was just resources at a school, then why is the achievement gap is present in almost every high school.

Not claiming to have the solution to the long term achievement gap, but it really needs to be a long term focus for us as a nation.