Brown v. Board @ Sixty

[AthenaAwakened]

http://my.firedoglake.com/mason/201...on/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

What we are seeing today should be more aptly termed separation, not segregation. of course those of us who actually lived through segregation, Selma, and MLK being assassinated, who remember seeing these atrocities on the nightly news; we are glad for the progress that has been made. it is important to describe what is going on today accurately, and it is not segregation by law, it may be de-facto segregation, but let’s call it what it is.

Today’s new segregation is a result of socio-economic circumstances, and more importantly how schools are funded. people get a good address for their kids to go to better schools because schools are generally funded by property taxes, so therefore better neighborhoods have better schools. a solution to better schools for poor children may be found in reforming the way schools are funded, or in revitalizing poor neighborhoods.

What do you think?

 

[Togo]

The best way to get ahead in school is to share your classroom with people who are well-educated, well-prepared, and well-supported from home. That's more likely to happen in affluent neighbourhoods. I suspect school funding would make a difference too, but it won't entirely solve the problem.

We had a teacher swap between my (affluent) school and an inner city comprehensive, what the teacher said was interesting. The kids weren't smarter, particularly, although we'd covered more material than pupils of the same age. He wasn't a worse or better teacher than we had already. But he took his lesson plans intended for an hour long lesson and ran out of material within 40mins, because he wasn't being constantly interrupted or having to work to control the class.

 

[zorq]

"a solution to better schools for poor children may be found in reforming the way schools are funded, or in revitalizing poor neighborhoods."

That last part makes no sense. If we revitalize a poor neighborhood, it will become more desirable which will definitely cause property values and property taxes to go up funding the school in that district better but it will also drive out the poor people in that neighborhood to some other forsaken plot of earth. It doesn't fix the problem of poorly funded schools it just moves the problem to somewhere else.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

"a solution to better schools for poor children may be found in reforming the way schools are funded, or in revitalizing poor neighborhoods."

That last part makes no sense. If we revitalize a poor neighborhood, it will become more desirable which will definitely cause property values and property taxes to go up funding the school in that district better but it will also drive out the poor people in that neighborhood to some other forsaken plot of earth. It doesn't fix the problem of poorly funded schools it just moves the problem to somewhere else.

Or

We can revitalize poor neighborhood through investments in real job creation that employs the people living in these neighborhoods at a living wage and then they too would have the ability pay the taxes necessary to fund their schools.