February 21, 200719 yr So it's your contention that EVERY kid in Jefferson County that wants to be in a better school get in, correct? Why then did that bothersome lawsuit go to the Supreme Court. Obviously someone didn't get to go to the school they want to go to. This is the key, and more farsighted people see it as the bombshell. Sandra Day O'Connor left the Supreme Court and was replaced by Samuel Alito. Most astute Supreme Court watchers, including one of the attorneys who argued the case before the United States Supreme Court, feel that this will result in busing being abolished in Jefferson County. Followers of Alito strongly feel that he will vote opposite the way that Justice O'Connor. Previous votes had been a 5-4 margin favoring issues similar to busing, with Justice O'Connor voting with the majority.This will cause the most radical revision of public schools in Jefferson County since the institution of busing in the 1970s. The repercussions will be for reaching, and, I believe, will also impact heavily on Catholic and other private schools. Approximately 7 years ago Kansas City ended busing. The city spent vast sums of money to build and maintain magnet, traditional and other types of schools in the inner city with top class facilities. The hope was that suburban children would be attracted in order to keep a mixture of diversity. Ultimately, Kansas City residents voted with their feet, resulting in children being sent to their neighborhood schools. The system re-segregated. Louisville is no different than Kansas City. If busing is struck down, the makeup of the schools in Jefferson County will return to some approximation of what it was pre busing. This will have major implications for schools such as Male and Manual. (Remember these schools, and Durrett, immediately before busing). It will also impact on the enrollment at Catholic schools, in my opinion. Once parents are free to send their children to their neighborhood schools rather than send their children to distant and unknown neighborhoods and schools, many will forgo spending over $8,000 annually to educate their children in private schools and will forego sending them to "magnet, traditional", or what ever type of school takes their children miles from their neighborhood. It will impact the enrollment in all Catholic schools, and I believe it will impact the enrollment more at Catholic schools with a lower percentage of Catholics enrolled. Mark my words, this will change everything, not the least of which is high school football. I really feel that this will dwarf the vouchers/public-private issue in Jefferson County for many years to come. Tune in for the decision this June.
February 22, 200719 yr I should have clarified my remarks relating to Mr. Sears "research" earlier for SliverShadow. The HL didn't report Mr. Sears mentioning anything at the BOE meeting about 99% of Catholic's graduates going on to college, the average 24.3 ACT composite, or merit/commended scholars. I looked for the same information about Tates Creek HS on their website and that of the FCPS and couldn't locate it. I also searched for similar info about TC's college athletes. The only sport that listed anyone was football and it was incomplete. I'm pretty sure if Mr. Ruddell, AD at Tates Creek, looked hard enough he'd find students who go on the college and play soccer, or swim, or golf, etc. They just don't track it and wouldn't want to publicize if they did as it hurts the cause of the Fayette county whiners. It's appalling Sears is given a public forum and media attention to spread misleading information. What's most telling about the 87 athletes listed on Catholic's website is that the overwhelming majority are going to D3 (academically selective) colleges that don't give scholarships for sports.
February 22, 200719 yr Diogenes, Help me out. I thought the pending Supreme Court case concerned the application of racial preferences in the admissions process for optional programs like the Traditional program. The person filing the lawsuit is claiming that her son was unjustly denied admission to a Traditional program school because his race resulted in a reduced chance of admission in the school system's lottery drawing. Given that scope, in the most extreme ruling (disallowance of race as a factor in admissions to optional programs as a means to achieve the desired balance), why would it necessarily lead to a complete tear-up of the JCPS's open enrollment policies and optional programs (magnets and traditional program schools)? I don't see the one thing necessarily leading to the other.
February 22, 200719 yr Diogenes, Help me out. I thought the pending Supreme Court case concerned the application of racial preferences in the admissions process for optional programs like the Traditional program. The person filing the lawsuit is claiming that her son was unjustly denied admission to a Traditional program school because his race resulted in a reduced chance of admission in the school system's lottery drawing. Given that scope, in the most extreme ruling (disallowance of race as a factor in admissions to optional programs as a means to achieve the desired balance), why would it necessarily lead to a complete tear-up of the JCPS's open enrollment policies and optional programs (magnets and traditional program schools)? I don't see the one thing necessarily leading to the other. Many schools have to bus in certain races to meet the quota, i.e. Ballard buses in blacks and Central buses in whites. This would no longer be allowed, as blacks from the west end would have to go to Shawnee, etc. and whites from the south end would have to go Southern, Iroquois, etc.
February 22, 200719 yr Many schools have to bus in certain races to meet the quota, i.e. Ballard buses in blacks and Central buses in whites. This would no longer be allowed, as blacks from the west end would have to go to Shawnee, etc. and whites from the south end would have to go Southern, Iroquois, etc. CentreRocks beat me to the answer, but his is a succinct and accurate analysis. Race would no longer be a permissible factor in determining public school enrollment. BTW, some commentators have posited that this Supreme Court will issue a far ranging opinion on this case that overturns affirmative action. If so, the ruling would dwarf almost every ruling for the prior several decades in terms of impact on both the law and society, IMHO.
February 22, 200719 yr But let's say the Supreme Court comes back and says diversity isn't a compelling enough reason for the use of race in determining who attends what school. How will that have any more effect on the optional/magnet/traditional programs other than forcing JCPS to eliminate racial preferences in admission? I still see the continuance of popular optional programs.
February 22, 200719 yr But let's say the Supreme Court comes back and says diversity isn't a compelling enough reason for the use of race in determining who attends what school. How will that have any more effect on the optional/magnet/traditional programs other than forcing JCPS to eliminate racial preferences in admission? I still see the continuance of popular optional programs. I am only going off the Kansas City template. I hope you are right. Below is an excerpt from "Money And School Performance:Lessons from the Kansas City Desegregation Experiment" by Paul Ciotti regarding the post busing landscape in Kansas City: But despite a $900,000 television advertising budget and a $6.4 million special budget for door-to-door transportation of suburban students, the district did not attract the ...white suburban students ... Even that modest number drastically declined after the Supreme Court's 1995 ruling that the judge had no authority to spend taxpayer dollars to transport suburban students into the district. By the 1996-97 school year, only 387 suburban students were still attending school in the KCMSD. Given that the district's annual desegregation budget was approximately $200 million, the cost of attracting those suburban students was half a million dollars per year per child. Some people in the black community regarded the white reluctance to attend school in the KCMSD as further proof of white racism--"You can't just build a $6 million school facility, call it a magnet, offer some romantic courses and think all the white students are going to come," said Kansas City mayor Emanuel Cleaver... ---------- It is a worrisome truism that when people have a choice they tend to segregate. Dr. King famously stated "The most segregated hour in America is Sunday morning church". http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.