The biggest problem with the integrated educational system is that we used the wrong policies to desegregate the schools in the 1960's and 70's. We thought it was just fine to pluck children of color from segregated concentrated neighborhoods and ship them all over town to achieve a false sense of racial integration.
The net affect is that the children in my neighborhood of Whittier are bussed (or were until the recent transportation system changes) to 59 different schools in Minneapolis. This has completely destroyed any sense of community that is achieved when parents network with one another in a community school setting. We are beginning to achieve this sense of community again where parents actually know one another and there is a good chance the kid across the street might go to school with your kid. But, only because our NRP funds allowed us to attract a community school to our neighborhood.
What we should have done in the 70's and should be doing now is providing affordable housing in ALL neighborhoods in Minneapolis and the inner and outer ring suburbs so that we can achieve real desegregation and not the fantasy that exists now.
Unfortunately, there is a great many limousine liberals out there who think it's just fine to keep all the poor and all the people with special needs enclaved in "certain" neighborhoods. They keep pouring money into non-profit organizations that support this concentration in their building policies, they keep winning elections, they keep enforcing these failed policies and they keep holding hot dog roasts and candlelight vigils when the bullets fly.
Barb Lickness
Whittier
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead
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