North Carolina Moves to End Desegregated Schools

After the 2007 Supreme Court Decision ending the use of race to assign children to public schools, local municipalities started to look at social class as a way of integrating public schools. Wake County, North Carolina, had been using such a policy since 2000. No more than 40% of students at any give school could be defined as low-income. They got stellar results. Test scores shot up among African-American and Latino students. Their white and Asian counterparts also did well. Ninety-one percent of all students are above grade level. Pretty remarkable given that we have not been able to close the achievement gap in spite of reform after reform.

Students are bused from all over the county to achieve socio-economic balance. Some head from the city to the suburbs while others come into the city from the suburbs. There have been complaints from parents about commuting time (as much as 55 minutes each way in some cases), but by and large the effort, now ten years old, has worked.

So, why give up on it? Recently, residents elected four Republicans to the Wake County school board who favor ending the desegregation system. Even though overall performance was increasing, the new conservative board members alleged a falling graduation rate and said parents were unhappy with the plan. On March 2, the board voted to end the busing plan.

Experts note how beneficial a desegregated school is for children. Students perform better at desegregated schools, but they also benefit by getting to know peers that are different from them. In spite of its benefits, neighboring Charlotte has stopped its efforts to desegregate its schools and has fallen into real problems of racial polarization and Wayne County, North Carolina, has seen its schools re-segregate.

With all of the focus on academic performance in schools, reformers have forgotten another, also vital, purpose of schools. Schools are not there just to improve our English and math skills, but to reinforce democratic values. Diverse schools have a better chance of teaching their students values like civic responsibility, respecting diversity, and promoting tolerance than segregated schools do. If we do not have schools that can effectively teach democratic values, we stand to lose just as much as if our schools cannot effectively teach students how to read.

Photo credit: freieke