> I would emphasize the "middle-class" aspect, Kimm. As of 2008 in >> Philadelphia, who cares if your investment counselor or your first >> violin is white, Black, Asian or of mixed blood?
The ³white² part is actually pretty important. Deseged schools are eligible for federal deseg dollars (or, at least, were. I¹m not sure how some of the recent Supreme Court rulings on school deseg efforts might be affecting that.) Anyway, given that the student body of the school district is overwhelmingly of color, keeping and catering to white students is critical to keep those dollars coming in. Secondly, the political reality is that the darker the student body, the less willing much of the Pennsylvania citizenry is to provide the desperately-needed state funding that the Philadelphia schools are so dependent on. > Magnet schools should be about getting kids to college, for the most > part. Sure they should. All schools should. > Of course they should get middle-class kids to college; why should >> middle-class parents fund a governmental product that can't perform this > elementary task? Yes, of course they should. Middle-class kids need an education too. My point was simply that Glenn seemed to be characterizing the magnet school system as some sort of utopian, egalitarian goal to strive toward. I agree with him that Penn and Drexel¹s motivations are to build a middle- to upper-middle class buffer zone around the universities, and not to make quality educational opportunities available to the current population attending UC High School. I was simply pointing out that the magnet school system serves much the same function, though without the localized gentrifying effect. Kimm On 4/7/08 11:08 PM, "Anthony West" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I would emphasize the "middle-class" aspect, Kimm. As of 2008 in > Philadelphia, who cares if your investment counselor or your first > violin is white, Black, Asian or of mixed blood? > > Magnet schools should be about getting kids to college, for the most > part. Of course they should get middle-class kids to college; why should > middle-class parents fund a governmental product that can't perform this > elementary task? But they should also get working-class kids to college. > That's how public education works when it's working at its best. When a > school system has a good balance of pupils from all classes, all classes > are willing to fund it. > > Inner-city education broke down when it lost its upper edge. The > question before us now is: how can we rebuild a healthy class balance, > as smoothly and as swiftly as possible, so our city can do what cities > have always done best: expose young people to the future? > > -- Tony West > > >> > >> > Magnet and deseg schools are about keeping white, middle class >> > families in the system. It¹s gentrification of the school system, if >> > you will. Low-income students and students of color benefit (or at >> > least they did, that may be changing) because of extra-resources that >> > deseged schools are eligible for, but it¹s all geared toward whites >> > and the middle class. Unless enrollment is 100% lottery-based, but I >> > don¹t know how common that is. >> > >> > FWIW, >> > >> > Kimm > > > ---- > You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the > list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see > <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
