Hey Lamp!
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Originally Posted by lamp
Do we, as a nation, still have "namely a desire to integrate kids"
Is a good thing or not. Why do we believe that ?
How can we arrange for kids to go to school with and play with their friends.
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In this particular situation with Wake Forest, I don't think it really matters what the nation wants, per se, as much as it's about what the tax payers of Wake Forest want. It's their taxes that are going into the schools, their votes that got Tedesco and board elected to oversee how those tax dollars are spent.
It's hard for me to talk about integration, segregation and liberty all in the same topic. I believe with all my heart that parents should be able to live where they want (within their means) and that vouchers should be issued so that their kids can attend school where they choose and that transportation to those schools is the parent's responsibility.
Since we *don't* have a voucher type system, then I believe that the next best option is community or neighborhood based schools. If you live within x distance of a school, then that's where you go. And where your friends go. Race, socio-economic, or gender shouldn't enter into it, period.
Yes, I'm fully aware that generally speaking, in that area, the "poor folk" are minorities, and I know that generally, people tend to live, play, and worship with people they are comfortable with, and alot of the time, that ethnic make up is very one-sided. I'm not sure though, that the collection of people in one neighborhood is based on the principles of segregation. If a black family moves into town, and wants to live in a predominantly black area, so what? Are we to tell them they *can't* move there because it would cause the neighborhood school to be over a pre-specified percentage line?
It is far different for that black family to move to a predominently white area and tell them they *can't* live there, because they are (insert dividing line here - black, poor, have spacial needs kids, whatever). THAT is racism.
eta: Look at ANY church in Wake Forest and you'll find a majority of one ethnic group. No one forces them to go to a specific church, or even to go to church at all. But you'll see that people tend to gravitate toward people with the same cultural and philosophical ideas. It's the nature of humans. It's when that is FORCED upon people that it becomes racism. [/eta]
To punish the children with long bus rides and division of friends and very important social relationships just because of some NAACP asshat screaming about "segregation" doesn't make sense to me. Where was that asshat when the "predominantly white" school in Wake Forest was in danger of closing down because of the crappy test scores? He wasn't screaming for racial equality THEN.
Let the people live where they *want* to live. Let's zone the schools according to geographic area, PERIOD. Let's build schools in the area with a high population of kids so we can reduce the number of kids in the classroom, give them more opportunity to use the just as updated computer labs as the ones across town. To read the same books as are in the library across town. You're going to be spending that money ANYWAY, might as well make ALL the schools equally awesome (or crappy, depending on your opinion of NC curriculum, which I'm here to tell you, isn't that awesome to start with).
I fully understand that a line has to be drawn somewhere, and that might just be down the middle of one street, and that we'll have kids on one side of the street going to one school, and the kids on the other side going to another, but it's FAR FAR better to make that line based on geography RATHER than on race or who can't afford to spend $2 a day on school lunch.
To me,
anything else is racism/discrimination.