Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

How The Systemic Segregation Of Schools Is Maintained By 'Individual Choices'

Sixty-three years after the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, many schools across the country either remain segregated or have re-segregated.

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that when it comes to school segregation, separate is never truly equal.

"There's never been a moment in the history of this country where black people who have been isolated from white people have gotten the same resources," Hannah-Jones says. "They often don't have the same level of instruction. They often don't have strong principals. They often don't have the same technology."

Still, when it was time for Hannah-Jones' daughter, Najya, to attend kindergarten, the journalist chose the public school near their home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, even though its students were almost all poor and black or Latino. Hannah-Jones laterwrote about that decision in The New York Times Magazine.

More

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand what she's saying and I think a lot of parents put up with less than ideal school conditions for a variety of reasons, but there comes a point where you have to decide if your child is thriving in the learning environment. While it doesn't seem to be an issue in this case, if the author chooses to keep her child in an environment where she's unsafe, or not challenged then she's failing in her responsibility as a parent, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

guess the author has never been to umes!

Anonymous said...

Community schooling. You go to the school that is closest to your home. Period. It is a very simple concept. It will save billions of dollars nationwide. That combined with denationalization of curriculum, local administrative control and parent involvement, demonetization of teachers unions, a healthy dose of discipline and scholarly competition will see our children once again rise to their fullest potential the way it used to be. The P.C. Liberal progressive crowd has all but ruined the public school system AND spent more to try and fix it. Fail! Time for real change.