From the NPR story:
In northwest Pennsylvania, along the edge of Lake Erie, you’ll find the city of Erie.
There, the superintendent of the more than 12,000-student district has forwarded a plan that’s causing a stir — calling for leaders to consider shutting down all of the district’s high schools and sending students to the wealthier, whiter, suburban districts.
Why?
Superintendent Jay Badams says it’s a “matter of fairness.”
Erie’s schools have been pushed to the brink after six years of deep budget cuts, and he believes the children in the city’s district — which predominantly serves students of color — are being systematically shortchanged.
This potential “solution” seems to be toeing the line between integration and forcing assimilation. While I agree that every student should have equal access to high quality education, there seem to be a number of concerning issues attached with busing students out of their hometown in order to do so. As this article mentions, there is already outside opposition and stigmatization of students coming from this area and into others. Would it be providing a truly high quality educational opportunity when students would be expected to navigate stigma and discrimination each day? It seems like this is expecting students-children- to address the sins of the older generation. History tells us that busing is only a potentially effective solution (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/booming/desegregation-and-the-public-schools.html). Although I am unsure of a more effective solution, I feel that the resources and energy that it would take to resort an entire city’s worth of students into surrounding school systems, may be better placed when pointed internally while also seeking external assistance.
I agree with Sarah’s thoughts, and am also concerned about discrimination and stigmatization the kids from city schools, who are overwhelmingly african-american, might face while going to suburban public schools that are overwhelmingly white. Will parents be upset about the increased number of schools, and smaller funding per student as a result of the change. However, I am most concerned about access to education. The article makes no mention of transportation, but if public transportation to the schools in the suburbs are not not extensive enough, some students living in the city may not have a consistent and reliable way to get to school every day. This would leave some students at a terrible disadvantage if they couldn’t get to schools because of a lack of transportation.