Self-Imposed Segregation or Racism?

I read an article today in the paper about the re-drawing of district lines in Metro Nashville Schools.  Never mind that we’re not living in the Metro school district, and I don’t have kids in school this year.  As a parent and former teacher, the issues of education just always interest me.

As in other school districts, Metro is experiencing growth.  They are building new schools.  When you build new schools, someone has to decide what kids are going to go there and how the district lines are going to be re-drawn.  Since Metro favors “neighborhood schools”, it usually means the radius of homes gets smaller with each new school built.  The advantages of this are obvious – less travel time for students to and from school, parents that are closer to the school and thus are more able to be involved, and a sense of community that is created within the school and the neighborhoods. 

Well, apparently people are complaining that by making the circle of students smaller, Metro is making the schools segregated.  Black neighborhoods will eventually be relegated to a predominately black school and white neighborhoods will eventually be relegated to predominately white schools.  This is obviously not ideal for the kids’ culture.  I do believe the more diverse a child’s experiences are with his peers, the more open-minded they will be as an adult.  One of the many reasons I don’t personally find home-schooling a good choice for our kids.  That’s another post.

However, many parents are complaining about the schools being segregated by Metro government, in some people’s opinions, on purpose – hence racism.  

Here’s my question:  What’s the difference in living in a segregated neighborhood and going to a segregated school?  If the neighborhood I CHOOSE to live in is predominately white or black, and I don’t have a problem LIVING there, why in the world would I suddenly have a problem with the school reflecting the same racial makeup as my neighborhood?  I understand people in low-economic, government subsidized neighborhoods probably don’t CHOOSE to live there.  Those neighborhoods may be their only options.  But, in my experience of working in low income schools, I had just as many low-performing white students as I did black, often when I had more black students than white.  It’s not a black/white thing to me, it’s that low income families often do not prepare their students to go into kindergarten with the same set of tools and abilities that those in upper income families do.  Black or white.  Having more white students or more black students will not change that.

Why bus kids from across town to make the school have a proper ratio of white to black students?  If we want to get to a world where color is not an issue, it seems to me that purposely looking at color, and making drastic changes to fix it, make more of a focus on color.  Look at the students and how to help, not at the visual makeup of the school.

That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it!