Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for January 15, 2007 WILL SEGREGATION RISE AGAIN?

Will the United States Supreme Court (with its new conservative majority) undo "Brown v. Board of Education"?

From The Ledger...

Supreme Court Case Has Big Implications for Polk

By Julia Crouse
The Ledger

BUSING NUMBERS
530 buses
6,000 stops
53,000 children carried daily
8.6 million miles per year
$38 million annual budget

First of two parts

LAKELAND

Each school day, about 4,400 black children in Polk County are bused to schools in white neighborhoods.

Once called busing, this form of school desegregation is now called spot zoning. The purpose is the same: Assuring a certain number of minority students in schools that otherwise would be nearly all white.

Soon, however, this forced desegregation of schools could be ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. A decision is expected in the late spring or early summer.

At issue before the Supreme Court are school integration plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, where students are offered a choice of schools using race as an enrollment factor to achieve integration in what would otherwise be segregated schools because of housing patterns.

Plaintiffs in both cases - Parents Involved in Community Schools Inc. v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County (Ky.) Board of Education - complain that school admission requirements unfairly discriminate against qualified applicants based solely on their race. Both school systems are being sued by parents whose children were denied admission to their preferred schools because of race.

After a Supreme Court hearing on Dec. 4, New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse wrote that there was little chance either plan would "survive the hostile scrutiny of the court's new (conservative) majority."

Louisville's plan to maintain racially diverse schools is similar to the system used in Polk County. Louisville maintains a 15 percent to 50 percent black enrollment at all schools by using race as an enrollment factor for its schools. Students may attend a choice of schools within a certain zone. They are denied entrance to a school outside of their school zone if their presence would cause that school to be above or below the 15 to 50 percent racial balance.

Back to neighborhood schools?

Polk County uses a racially based system of magnet schools, choice schools and spot zoning to maintain a 15 to 40 percent black enrollment at all of its schools.

Polk's school officials say the fallout from the Supreme Court's decision could significantly affect the district and many others throughout the country if the court rules against race-based student-assignment plans. Some schools in Lakeland's downtown and suburban areas could become nearly all black or all white, said Brenda Taguri, the district's senior coordinator of demographic and statistical planning.

For example, schools in majority white neighborhoods, such as George Jenkins High and Scott Lake Elementary, could become nearly all-white schools. On the flip side, schools in largely black neighborhoods could become all black. Hispanic-dominated schools would face no changes because they are not factored into the desegregation equation.

The School District is drawing up plans for possible changes to the desegregation laws. But Superintendent Gail McKinzie said the best plan is to wait and see what will happen before making any major decisions. "We don't want a knee-jerk reaction to it," she said.

She doubts that Supreme Court justices will expect immediate changes to racial enrollment systems if such a decision is handed down. If the law changes, she said Polk would likely have several years to comply.

From 1963 until 2000, the Polk County School District operated under a federal desegregation order that gave a federal judge broad powers in the operation of the district. The order meant that Polk schools needed court approval to change instructional plans or hiring procedures, build new schools or draw attendance zones.

Part of Polk's desegregation plan was to create eight elite magnet schools designed to draw white students into schools in predominantly black neighborhoods by offering a specialized education. Some magnet schools are Lawton Chiles Academy, Lincoln Avenue Academy and Rochelle School of the Arts, all near downtown Lakeland.

The desegregation order was lifted in 2000 and the district was granted unitary status, which means that a federal judge ruled that Polk no longer operated a segregated school system. To maintain unitary status, Polk administrators continue to ensure a racially diverse student body at each school. The School Board has a desegregation committee that oversees efforts to maintain diversity and evaluates new programs and charter schools.

The magnet schools have been successful and now have long waiting lists.

Other options for students are choice schools that offer specific programs such as technology or the arts and require an application for admission.

Choice schools adhere to the same racial admission standards as magnet schools - a 15 percent to 50 percent black-white enrollment ratio - but were created out of community interest rather than the desegregation order. Some choice schools only require racially based admission for students not living within their attendance zones.

But the magnet and choice schools aren't enough to ensure diversity at all schools.

Ideally, a school should reflect the percentage of races in the district. Of the 93,106 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through high school in Polk, 52 percent are white, 23 percent are black, 21 percent are Hispanic and 3 percent are another race or a mixed race. However, neighborhoods generally are not racially mixed.

So to maintain a similar racial balance in each school, the district must bus students from one area to another.

In Lakeland, 2,565 students live in so-called spot zones - neighborhoods near downtown - and are bused to 16 schools, including George Jenkins High with 319 students in a spot zone, Scott Lake Elementary with 304 students in a spot zone, Valleyview Elementary with 253, Kathleen Elementary with 194 and Cleveland Court with 158. Some of these students aren't bused across town because they attend a magnet, choice, private or home school.

Outside of Lakeland, 17 schools have spot zones totaling 1,906 students, including Gibbons Street Elementary with 289 students in a spot zone, Chain of Lakes Elementary with 217, Pinewood with 201 and Purcell Elementary, 187.

In all, 4,471 students live in spot zones countywide. They make up about 9 percent of the 53,000 Polk children who ride buses to school each day.

Kawanda Mills' three children were bused more than 10 miles to Scott Lake Elementary, when the closest school - Blake Academy - was only about a mile from her home on Beech Avenue in Lakeland.

Mills said the bus ride was worth it because her children received an excellent education at Scott Lake. Plus, she'd rather the children be in a racially diverse classroom.

Mills moved this school year to South Lakeland and currently is in Medulla Elementary's zone. But her children are finishing up the year at Scott Lake with her driving them to school.

She does not favor a return to neighborhood schools because it will create all-black and all-white schools and dilute the lessons of tolerance. "Children learn different things and stuff from different people when they are in mixed classrooms," she said. "I teach my children it's okay to have a white study buddy, it's okay to get along with white people. You should not dislike someone because of the way black people were treated in the past."

"Historically … minorities have accepted the burden of desegregation," said Otis Anthony, Polk schools' senior director of minority relations. "The typical view is that the black community must be split to have desegregation and diversity in schools."

School Board member Kay Fields, one of two black members on the board, said the issue is controversial both for students who are bused across town and for those living in the neighborhoods where the schools are located.

At a recent parent meeting for the new Highlands Grove Elementary in South Lakeland, several parents expressed concerns that the spot-zoned students, who are black, could lower standards and bring down scores at the new elementary school.

Fields said she's heard this view too often.

"It's something that's an unfortunate mentality and stereotype," she said. "I've never seen any school that lowered standards because of spot zoning. If any Polk County administrator or school official tried that, they shouldn't be employed in Polk County."

Mills' children, in grades kindergarten, third and fifth, have excelled at Scott Lake and earn straight A's on their report cards, she said.

Pros and cons

Eliminating spot zoning would return the district to all neighborhood schools, where children attend the school nearest to their homes.

Board member Frank O'Reilly is a proponent of neighborhood schools. He said that many parents of students who are bused across town feel disconnected with their children's schools. Many don't have the resources to attend functions or teachers' conferences, others don't seek it out because of the distance, he said.

While spot zoning ensures that students interact with children of other races, their parents can feel disenfranchised from their children's schools, said board member Brenda Reddout, the board's other black member. "They never really become a part of that school community," she said.

Many parents would like to participate in their children's education, but can't make it across town, said Tim Mitchell, who works with Parker Street Ministries, a nonprofit organization that works with members of the downtown Lakeland neighborhood around Parker Street. One of the ministry's efforts is an after-school program for children in area.

Mitchell's neighborhood is zoned for north, south and central Lakeland schools, he said. Children go everywhere from Valleyview and Scott Lake Elementary Schools in South Lakeland to Sleepy Hill Middle in the north part of town.

"The majority of our moms would be very involved if they could get to the school," he said. "If we offer them a ride to the school, they take it."

For some parents, the local public transportation isn't a big help. Citrus Connection buses will take parents to the Lakeland Square Mall, but they have to walk another mile to Sleepy Hill Middle, Mitchell said.

Polk County and most of the country has come a long way from the separate-but-equal era that fueled 1954's Supreme Court desegregation ruling in Brown v. the Board of Education in Topeka, O'Reilly said. During the days of segregation, schools in black neighborhoods were inferior, he said.

"I don't think that's the case in Polk County," he said. "So we can throw out that argument."

But Reddout countered by pointing out that the differences between wealthy neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods would create have and have-not schools despite race. She said one of the downsides of neighborhood schools is that schools in poor neighborhoods receive fewer amenities compared to their wealthier counterparts because of less parental involvement, business sponsorships and volunteers.

For some neighborhoods, however, the ruling wouldn't make too much of a difference, Mitchell said. "There are no schools within walking distance of our neighborhood," he said. "What we need to change is public transportation."

If race is thrown out as a factor, McKinzie said Polk may use socioeconomic status as an enrollment factor. For example, students in neighborhoods with high percentages of poverty or students on free or reduced lunches may be spot zoned to wealthier areas. "I imagine that could be challenged in court one day, too," she said.

O'Reilly said he supports diversity in the classroom, but he equally supports abolishing spot zones and allowing children to attend the school nearest to their home. "When our youngest children are bused from the north side of town 10 to 15 miles to the south side of town, what are we accomplishing?" he asked.

Neighborhood schools are a very nice idea in theory, Reddout said. But she doubts that the realities of going back to neighborhood schools would not be easy, or, in the end, equitable.

"There is value in diversity, value in integration, and, face it, we don't really have much choice these days," she said. "We are in a global environment and have to work with all sorts of different people. Schools are the starting grounds for that."