The issue is not one of needing to mix races or socio-economic classes in schools -- the issue is instead the need to make those schools more effective.

Sen. John Edwards plans to warn later this week that the nationÂ’s schools have become segregated by race and income, and he will propose measures to diversify both inner-city and middle-class schools.

The plan calls for beefing up inner-city magnet schools to attract suburban kids, and providing extra money for schools in middle-class areas as a reward for enrolling more low-income students.

Edwards seems to be hung up on the Magic Caucasian fallacy -- the absurd notion that getting a minority student next to a white student will somehow enable that minority students to learn in ways that they never could with another minority student sitting next to them. So rather than offering help in actually improving facilities, materials, and teachers, Edwards wants to dump more cash into a social engineering scheme of the sort that really hasn't ever worked to improve education.

And let's look at this quote from the candidate.

“We still have two public school systems in this country,” Edwards said. “They're not segregated just based on race. They're segregated, to a large extent, based on economics, which has racial implications.”

“The result is,” Edwards continued, “if you live in a wealthy suburban area, the odds are very high that your child will get a very good public school education. If you live in the inner city or if you live in a poor rural area, the odds of that go down dramatically. And I think there are very specific things we can do to not only improve the quality of the education in those areas but also to improve the quality of our schools at large.”

However, let's look at his contentions. Two educational systems? Yes, we do -- but they are public and private, not majority/minority or rich/poor. Interestingly enough, we know which system does better in many parts of our country -- but certain groups have a vested interest in making sure that the more effective one is not open to the poorest Americans. Edwards doesn't want to address that gap -- maybe because he wants someone else's children to be a part of that experiment in achieving diversity of ethnicity and social class, but not his own. I'll be more willing to accept that he believes in that diversity when he commits to enrolling his kids in predominantly minority, low SES public school.

Let's consider this contention -- “The result is,” Edwards continued, “if you live in a wealthy suburban area, the odds are very high that your child will get a very good public school education.

Now Edwards has a point here -- but there are a number of factors involved there. Parental involvement tends to be higher, and that has a marked effect on student performance. So, too, does the parents in those areas are more likely to have at least a college degree, if not a graduate level education. There is an expectation of achievement, and parents have the ability to help students with their work. No amount of government money to mix races or economic levels can fix those things -- and the money spent on moving bodies would be better spent on tutoring programs and other academic support services.

And Edwards doesn't recognize that his plan can't solve some of the problems he points to -- If you live in the inner city or if you live in a poor rural area, the odds of that go down dramatically.

Well, maybe you can encourage some of that mixing in a bigger urban district, but doing so in a rural district is not so easy. Look, for example, at west Texas -- sometimes you have schools that are 50-75 miles apart. How are you going to mix anything when there is only one high school in the county? Again, the issue is one of improving what you have, not changing the racial mix.

And while I'm talking about improving programs and facilities, I am not necessarily saying that money is the end-all and be-all of educational reform. Good grief -- the public schools in Washington, DC spends almost as much money per pupil as any district in the country, but still doesn't have results that anyone would be proud of. More rich white kids aren't the answer.

Posted by: Greg at 01:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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