Is Public School the New Battlefront for Education Equality?

The scene is set in Raleigh, N.C. Police dart into a crowd of passionate protesters. Others are inside, arm-in-arm, singing the well-known song of empowerment, “We Shall Overcome” while being dragged out in handcuffs.

Think this is about Black History? Think again.

This was the scene at a Wake County School Board meeting in Raleigh earlier this year. In one incident, 19 people were arrested and taken to police cars. A school board member was almost taken away by police when trying to calm the crowd. The shocking resemblance of this scene in comparison to those happenings of the past has put the Wake County School Board on the national stage. It also has many up in arms, especially those who see this battle as a repeat of their own childhood.

The Situation

A school district in North Carolina decided to change a highly successful 10-year system that promoted socioeconomic diversity through implementing caps on how many free-lunch students could attend certain schools and busing them outside of their own neighborhoods. Now students will be limited to certain zones that are close to home. The system was said to have been successful in 85 out of 116 elementary and middle schools, according to one report.

Others on the school board who voted for the change thought the system was unsuccessful and that perhaps the diversity was getting in the way of academic achievement. “People take it as an article of faith that if you put kids in different backgrounds together they are already going to have a better grades,” said Chris Malone, Wake County School Board member. “It is a growth experience, but if diversity gets in the way of achievement then we have our priorities wrong.”

In another district, a mother was arrested on federal charges for providing false information in an effort to get her children zoned in a more favorable district. On Feb. 17, Al Sharpton and others gathered in that Ohio school district to defend a woman who was doing what she thought she needed to do to get her children a quality education.

Should children be put into mixed schools that are limited to racial or socioeconomic groups in public schools? And, more importantly, what price are the students paying at the hands of school zoning rather than busing?

Desegregation

When the desegregation of schools was mandated in the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, many knew this was just the beginning. It was no longer in the hands of the Supreme Court to enforce desegregation in public schools.

Instead, the responsibility sat squarely in the laps of “school authorities” and “District Courts in which school desegregation cases originated” because these would be the courts that would evaluate the cases and rule according to the law, according to the U.S. Department of Education. According to the department, “School districts have an affirmative obligation to achieve desegregation beyond merely refraining from enforcing segregation.”

A Snake That’s Shed Its Skin

Brown v. Board of Education strove to eliminate racial discrimination in public schools, and to a large extent, it accomplished what it set out to do. It would be foolish to think that society is comprised of a utopia education system in which every student, regardless of race, religion or socioeconomic standing, is equal.

Many schools in low-income areas suffer from a lack of resources and quality educators. Too many good schools are just out of reach for those who require free lunch or government assistance.

In a way, segregation is like a snake that has shed its skin. Gone are the obvious “Keep Blacks out of our White Schools” picketers. In their place, are subtle, but similar neighborhood zoning policies where the lines of division conveniently slither around low-income neighborhoods. These divisions are created by those who would rather not see low-income children in the same schools as more privileged children.

And so the snake is not gone, but renewed in its new mission to poison something that had been repaired. Both sides of the North Carolina debate agree on the fact that there are disparities. Where the rift begins is how to rectify the situation.

A Mother Willing to do What it Takes

Since she did not feel that the schools offered in her district were quality enough, Kelly Williams-Bolar lied about her address and sent her kids outside of her neighborhood where they received their education. Williams-Bolar spent nine days in jail and faces federal criminal charges. Was she justified? Has this revealed what many are willing to do in the name of properly educating their children?

A Celebrated School District Bounds Ahead of Most Takes a Leap Back: A Community Brought Together in Opposition

When the Wake County School Board ruled that the busing system would come to an end, a national firestorm erupted in Raleigh, N.C. Members of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) including its president, Benjamin Jealous, came down to march on Raleigh. Protesters sat in the school board meeting arm in arm to show their distaste for what was said by many to be a backwards ruling in terms of diversity. Outrage was especially present because of the contrast this ruling was compared to how far that particular school board had come in desegregation efforts.

There used to be a cap for how many students could be on free lunch (only 40 percent per school), this 5-4 ruling in favor of school zoning according to neighborhoods ran the risk of focusing students of one income bracket into one school. Many believe this is stepping back into segregation. Many were in opposition including NAACP State President Reverend William Barber.

“When you want to dismantle that, based on political ideology, not based on educational research, there’s something real wrong about that and we have to challenge it,” said Williams-Bolar, according to naacp.org.

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts’ response to the change in the busing system

Q. Are you surprised that a system that is so celebrated would take what many are referring to a great step back?

A. Nothing surprises me anymore. We are facing this new era of conservative extremism where we are turning back the clock. It shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention. It has happened before and it will happen again in the future.

John Tedesco Wake County School Board Member

“A lot of this is misunderstood and skewed”, John Tedesco revealed when asked about his take on all the controversy surrounding the issue.

“We have a very complex assignment model for a very large districts. We have year round schools, we have a lot of idiosyncrasies that others don’t have. We want to allow fair access to everybody.

“We think the schools will fair better. The old system helped a culture of low expectations. The low-income families deserve the rigorous education. We should as a system help every child succeed.

“We had a lot of high poverty schools anyway. Walnut Creek had a high degree of poverty. 80 percent were on free and reduce lunch but 52 percent were performing above proficiency and those kids should be given rigorous education not low expectations,” said Tedesco.

Tedesco is making an effort to improve the education system, but will implementing a new plan prove to be successful?

Chair of Hillsborough County Public School Board Members Doretha W. Edgecomb

“For all the things they’ve done on the past, it seems that they are destroying that has so many accolades from before, “ explained Doretha W. Edgecomb, Chair of the Hillsborough County School Board, “We were looking at Lake County’s system as a way to provide diversity in our own schools.”

Edgecomb’s testament is not alone by any means. The Wake County system has been nationally syndicated since it’s implementation and looked up to for years by school districts hoping to attain the diversity that resulted from the change.

She disagreed with not regulating the amount of low or high-income families allowed in certain districts for fear that all diversity of race or economic status would be eliminated.

“There’s the diversity of economics and also of race. If North Carolina’s tying to improve the education and having rigorous education how do you have that with an all low-income or high-income school or all white or black schools?” Edgecomb admitted that there is always resistance to change, but change to such a celebrated and successful system may not be wise.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Many argue that the controversies we face now are not the same as what played out in our racially divided history. Perhaps it could be argued that this isn’t exactly the same, however, the circumstances are hauntingly similar.

Some conservatives argue that this is in contradiction of Dr. King’s philosophy of not making decisions based on color. Just like in the times of the original desegregation of schools, everyone knew it wouldn’t come easy. Desegregation had to be enforced so that our classrooms could be racially diverse. It provided someone like me the opportunity for an equal learning experience.

It is best put in the words of Rev. William Barber, “You can not claim that history unless you govern with that philosophy.”

We must use the philosophy that everyone no matter their race or socioeconomic status should be allowed the chance to attain a quality education, be that in their own neighborhood or perhaps in another neighborhood just a bus ride away.

“1. The Congress should turn back all efforts to thwart school desegregation and schools instead provide positive support for the constitutional imperative of desegregating the Nation’s public schools.

“2. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare through its Office for Civil Rights should further intensify its enforcements effort.”

These are two of the conclusions reached in a 1979 Status Report Desegregation of the Nation’s Public Schools by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

These principals need not be forgotten even today. We must intensify our efforts until every child can have the chance to have a rigorous and competitive educational experience.

Center for Civil Rights Education Attorney, Benita Jones – Graduated from Wake County School System in 2000

Q. Where do you see this going in the future?

A. One good thing is people are very informed and are asking critical questions. To see 100 people want to go to a school board meeting a fascinating to me. If we get communities engaged around the issue, we can grow.

Benita Jones works at the Center for Civil Rights. The center has teamed up with other groups that filed a complaint against the Wake County School System to the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. The complaint is still under investigation.