Monday, February 2, 2009

Separate but Equitable in 2009

Equity: The Commission believes that educational opportunities should not depend on a jurisdiction’s relative ability to raise revenue from local sources. Accordingly, the Commission worked under the premise that, to the extent practicable, funding for education should be wealth-equalized so that per pupil State aid in less wealthy jurisdictions is greater than per pupil State aid in more wealthy jurisdictions.”

Commission on Education Finance, Equity, and Excellence (the “Thornton Commission”)
Final Report (2002)

“When the government, therefore, has secured to each of its citizens equal rights before the law, and equal opportunities for improvement and progress, it has accomplished the end for which it was organized, and performed all of the functions respecting social advantages with which it is endowed. Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts, or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation.”

-Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Of late, the great outcry among advocates for Maryland’s urban schools has been over the drastic cuts in state funding to struggling school districts. Given that statewide funding will be $140 million less than was expected under Thornton, and that Baltimore City and Prince George’s County will suffer the largest cuts ($23 million and $35 million, respectively), it is difficult to dispute Dr. Alonso’s contention that the budget adjustment represents “an effective rollback of Thornton,” particularly the Commission’s call for “wealth-equalized” funding, quoted above.

What is always lost in this debate, though, is the fact that even at its best Thornton simply maintains a system of “equitable” de facto segregation. 92.4% of public school students in Baltimore are nonwhite, and – as anyone working in the system will attest – this statistic masks the even greater segregation present at the level of individual schools. This stands in stark contrast to neighboring jurisdictions, which report minority enrollment of 50% (Baltimore Co.), 41% (Howard Co.), and 33% (Anne Arundel Co.) (Source: 2008 Maryland Report Card). That Thornton seeks to make funding among these districts more “equitable” is admirable, but it betrays the fact that our conventional wisdom is stuck in 1896, with its unspoken assumption that “to attempt to [eradicate racial instincts] can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation” (Plessy, above).

On the issue of equity, we appear to still be capable of impassioned dissent. One of my students, upon reading Dr. Alonso’s letter to families today, crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it across the room in disgust. Half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, though, few would bat an eyelash at the absence of white faces in our city’s schools.

2 comments:

A BCPSS Parent said...

Excellent post, but I think funding (and creating excellent schools with that money) is the first step in addressing the problem. As long as there is a way to opt out of public schools there will be people fleeing bad schools - whether this is by paying for private schools, falsifying addresses or moving to a different school district. I'd love for Baltimore's schools to reflect the diversity of the city, but you can't even get neighborhood schools to reflect the diversity of the zone that they draw from. Beyond some massive social engineering projects (and good luck with that) I think we need to make City Schools that people want to send their kids to. We need to eliminate violence, get some spectacular success stories and get some good buzz going. As long as the majority of people see BCPSS as a last resort when you can't afford other options we'll see this segregation.

Anonymous said...

One of the most interesting challeges is to change the thinking of those most affected so that they realize that this situation is totally unacceptable. What we see are second and third generations of families that have been underserved for years and they assume that things can not get better.