For my mere support of Hillary Clinton, I have been called a racist, more times than I can count. One of the refuges I have found in this crazy blogosphere, has been Anglachel’s Journal.
In her post today, she touches on a subject very close to me. She asks of the “creative class”, Where Do Your Kids Go To School?
She asks them, assuming since most of these are upper income people, they probably don’t send their kids to public schools. Implying that, perhaps, they don’t practice what they preach.
My daughter attends school in the Jefferson County Public School system, which was recently in the news, when the Supreme Court overturned our desegregation policy.
(I am sure this subject was hashed out many moons before I ever caught sight of the Mighty Corrente Building, but I would like to quickly recap.)
The plan, which was court mandated in the 70’s and incited riots in my fair city, was ordered because the African American students were all being crammed into a few small underfunded schools in the city’s West End(the historically AA part of our city). The reasoning was that if AA students were spread out all over the system, they would receive a better education, and the traditionally AA schools would get better funding, since white students would now be attending.
And it worked. The plan wasn’t perfect, it required long bus rides for many students, but it had a strong foundation, the core of which, is that no school in the system could have an enrollment of AA students over 49%.
Eventually, after the mandate was lifted, the plan continued. Until one whiny (white) mother complained about the long time it would take her daughter to get to school. The battle was fought for years, and was finally decided by our uber-conservative Supreme Court.
I tell you this, to tell you about my school choice for my daughter. When I was researching daycares, I stumbled across this intriguing education concept called, Montessori. I never could afford to send her to a Montessori preschool, but when she began her public education, I was fortunate enough to have a couple of Montessori schools available to me.
I chose one as my first choice. It is a National Blue Ribbon school, 98% of its students go into Advanced Placement.
I knew none of this when I chose the school. This is what I did know. It sits in the middle of a public housing project, in the middle of the West End. Conforming to the school assignment plan, AA enrollment is exactly 49%, Latino enrollment is at 17%, and most of those are ESL students.
I chose this school, knowing my brunette blue eyed little girl was going to be the minority. I did this for several reasons, the desire to have her achieve a Montessori education, being chief among them. But there were several other schools I could have picked where she would have gotten the Montessori education, and she wouldn’t be the minority. But the idea that she would be exposed to people from very different walks of life was intriguing to me.
Because I am a liberal. Because I am tolerant. Because I believed in the desegregation plan. Because I want her to be “color blind”, in a way that my generation can never be.
Yet I too, have to wonder how many of the “creative class” would have made the conscience decision I made, all the while they accuse me of racism.
Front page
you have montessori public schools?
i’ve never heard of that at all…
as for public schools and the creative class—it depends where they are and what they make and what their local public schools are like.
The majority of the creative class here in NYC moves to the suburbs when they have kids—usually before they turn 4 or 5—and the ones that don’t either sends them to private school if they don’t get into good magnet public schools and/or their neighborhood schools aren’t good.
The ones that stay who aren’t rich usually try to keep their kids in public schools til 6th grade tho if they can, i find.
Yes, we have three
Two are magnet schools, and one serves a cluster(a group of schools that are linked together). My daughter attends a magnet school that is actually in our cluster. And one of the only reasons she was able to attend, is that she is white, and they need more white students to meet the enrollment requirements.
Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!
ahh
I hate the Supreme Court so for the desegregation thing—even on top of Bush v. Gore, Eminent Domain, sex discrimination at work cases, Voter ID, and all the other and ongoing horrors.
They’re flipping all great advances one at a time—and were actually truly Orwellian in interpreting Brown v. Board of Ed.
would your kid get in if you were trying for it today? did the case change it all?
We'll find out
this summer. Since it’s a magnet school, she is still allowed to go there, AFAIK, but the problem will be the busing. We aren’t sure if the bus will be available to take her there in a few years, the 2008-2009 school year won’t be affected.
Since the ruling said race can’t be the only factor, the new plan will take race and income into account in determining schools. How much it’s going to affect the students, we don’t know yet.
And the asshole attorney that filed the original claim, after trying to embezzle the school board for court fees, even though he was the one who kept filing appeals, is now filing cases against the new programs that have been proposed, and is arguing that the changes must take effect before 2008-2009.
Asshole.
Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!
My kids attend public school
The population is small (470) for a K-6 school, which is fine by me. I’m also happy that their school has a very diverse population: 35% white, 21% Asian, 17% black (non-Hispanic), 19% Hispanic and 8% other. We live in Fairfax County, VA, which is the 13th largest school system in the nation and one of the best systems.
Having said that, I did briefly consider pulling them out and sending them to private school primarily because of testing. As much as I like the school, I’m really tired of my kids being taught with the goal of taking exams. What happens is toward the end of the year, new material is shoehorned in so they can cover everything that might be on the exams. It’s a lot of pressure. But we can’t afford private schools around here so it was a very brief consideration.
School and racism
My kids are adults and they all went to public school from beginning to end. They can call me a racist as much as they want.
If John Lewis would have called me a racist, I would reexamine my attitude. If a group of over educated fat cats and half black white educate candidate says that I am a racist, I couldn’t care less.
As for the creative class, we have three academics in our white trash family.
NCLB
Having said that, I did briefly consider pulling them out and sending them to private school primarily because of testing.
No Child Left Behind was designed to destroy the entire public school system.
everything GOP is meant to destroy public services
—from schools to social/aid stuff to public infrastructure to ….
Aeryl, can you guys band together to stop him? he’s done too much harm already. and can you drive her if needed or push her school/district to provide transportation?
corrine, are your kids taking foreign language yet? i’ve heard more and more public schools are adding it to grade school instead of jr.high/highschools nowadays (friends of mine with 4th-6th grade kids in the suburbs are doing a 1/2 year Spanish, and then 1/2 French now—i was really surprised to hear it, but it’s a great idea.)
I wonder if “creative class” people with kids are voting differently from those without—i bet they are.
We're gonna try
My immedeate supervisor was a single mom, with a deadbeat husband before that, and is very sympathetic to the travails of raising a child in poverty. I’ll probably be able to work a ride to school. That’ll jack my gas expenses up, but oh well. YDWYGD.
The teach Spanish at her school. It’s only one semester a year for right now, but they started her in kindergarten. But it is a certified ESL instruction school, she had 2 Spanish only speaking students in her class this year. They take ESL in the mornings, and then they put them in classes with bilingual students. The two in her class have made a lot of progress since December.
Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!
Public schools
Both my kids attended public schools. And during our time there, we fought for parcel taxes, we fought to keep music in the schools, we struggled to keep the schools in the AA neighborhoods open and with equal resources. Where were the majority of Obama supporters in this town? Private schools. Cause their precious ones, could not go to school with what they call the disruptive children. When they did come back, during high school, they wanted a prize. But they came because the high school offered 4 years of latin and loads of great courses, and of course, it would look so great if they came from a public school.
It’s not just about racism, it’s a meritocracy. They will do anything to keep the privileges for their children and shut others out. They want to be the new aristocracy.