No Glamour Here, Either
I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about the diversity debate in Wake County. This individual has worked for years within the progressive movement, is very knowledgeable about the topic, is a father of two, and is African-American. I assumed he was, as I am, a proponent of the former diversity policy and against the neighborhood model. As it turns out, however, he is not. When I asked him why, it was clear that he had put significant thought into this.
He said, in part, “I think that neighborhood schools create a challenge for school boards to make sure that schools in underperformed areas have the resources to help them succeed. The same energy that they are using to mobilize people for this they should be using to mobilize people to fight for inclusionary zoning to fix the neighborhood segregation issues. That is the real problem. Fix that issue and you can solve the school diversity issue without busing kids all over. “ He concluded, “There is no glamour in that fight, so it gets left alone.” Fair point.
Particularly in light of the new majority’s recent reconsideration of their particular brand of neighborhood schools, I began to wonder if we were all wasting our precious time and resources on the wrong fight. Certainly, neither my friend nor I want to see segregated schools – on that we obviously agree. However, perhaps he is right about reacting out of emotion rather than intellect, a response we have chided others about many times. Are we wrong to worry about the policies of the Wake County School Board or are we wrong to address the underlying issues of exclusionary zoning that created de facto segregated neighborhoods?
The answer to both is “no”.
We are dealing with both the cause and effect sides of the same problem, but the time-lines and solutions are both vastly different. Yes, zoning issues are extremely important when looking at the problem of racially homogeneous communities – the problem has been identified for a long time, and yes, it is a very difficult problem to engage and organize people around. However, in this scenario, educational segregation is merely the result of community segregation, not the other way around. So,while it is true that by fully balancing the socio-economic profile of our communities we may solve our educational integration issue, we certainly realize that balancing the socio-economic profile of a school system is much easier, not mention actually achievable. Therefore, we are forced to address each problem separately, because we have a greater likelihood of quickly addressing one problem, while the other will likely languish for quite some time, despite our best efforts.
The ultimate question, of course, boils down to where NCSJP and other organizations should spend our resources in our ultimate goal of providing the best possible education for every child. In this case, the answer is easy: everywhere. We must address every possible avenue to ensure educational quality and achievement is as high as possible. We will continue to press the Wake County School Board to develop policies that promote educational excellence for every child, no matter their address, and then fight to make that home address the best possible place to live. One goal is achievable in the short term, the other in the longer term.
Unfortunately, we never seem to have a shortage of problems to solve.
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