Where Civility Is a Moto, a School Integration Fight Turns Bitter
Dana Goldstein, NYT
Opponents say that redistricting and integration efforts by Maryland’s, Howard Country School Board is a destined-to-fail effort. Dr. Martirano, the Superintendent of Howard County Schools has proposed his Equity in Action Project. The policies would transfer 7,400 of the district’s 58,000 students to different schools in “an effort to chip away an at uncomfortable truth: Some of the county’s campuses have become havens for rich students, whole others serve large numbers of children whose families are struggling”. Either it urban or suburban, cities have been built on lines of segregation through a systematic process of exclusion. The racialized and economic inequity is so starkly reflected in the composition of schools which leads to the prevailing conversation circulating around the Howard County integration debate: civility, race, and self-preservation.
Howard County, like other districts around the country have begun to move toward equity through integration proposals but have been met with fierce opposition. Opponents insist it’s about the extra 2 miles their child may have to be on a bus, or they even argue that lower-income families will have an ever-harder time engaging with their child’s school if it’s farther away. I argue that in reality, we’re battling racist stereotypes, fear, and an especially pervasive racism that illusions an individual of power into thinking that racism and a racist policy (like school zoning) benefits them or even solidifies their power if it subordinates another.
The School Board is voting on Equity in Action come November 21st, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/us/howard-county-school-redistricting.html?searchResultPosition=3
