Who Becomes Louisville Powers if Neighborhood Schools Come Back?

[thomam]

There is a strong possibility that Jefferson County may have to go back to neighborhood schools if the assignment plan is struck down by the supreme court. If this happens, which schools may become powers who might not have previously been?

[02Ram54]

There is a strong possibility that Jefferson County may have to go back to neighborhood schools if the assignment plan is struck down by the supreme court. If this happens, which schools may become powers who might not have previously been?

Not happening. Just so you know, JCPS would continue as we know it without racial assignment. At this point, school choice and Magnet programs are the driving force behind busing at the high school level, especially for the so-called 'Louisville powers.' And that's not going away, no matter what the ruling us,

[thomam]

obviously you didn't read the paper this morning or have been reading the paper. Read the Metro section this morning. But the discussion is if it happens. What schools may become powers or maybe will there be more parity?

 

also, the new superintendent stated he doesn't like the fact that schools here in Louisville are set up to succeed and others to fail. Meaning Manual, Male, Butler etc. He thinks all schools should be equal.

[Diogenes]

This topic, in my opinion, has been under the radar far longer than it deserves. It is the proverbial bull in the china shop in areas far greater than high school athletics. However, because this is a high school athletic football thread, I will limit my comments to the effects of busing on football only.

 

At the outset, one must determine whether the Supreme Court will decide in a manner that abolishes busing in Jefferson County. Many knowledgeable Court followers predict that the two Justice shift in the Supreme Court over the last couple of years will alter the delicate balance that kept busing in effect for a number of years. The Rehnquist/Roberts trade on the Court should not affect the balance, because Rehnquist was a consistent opponent of racially balancing schools/ busing as far back as the early 1950s where some of his writings pre-Brown v. Board of Education almost derailed his appointment to the United States Supreme Court. However, the O'Connor/Alito change in the Court may tip the 5- 4 pro-busing balance. Sandra Day O'Connor had voted to uphold busing as a remedy for prior racial inequities; Samuel Alito has signaled that he would not vote to uphold busing. Assuming that busing is struck down, what then?

 

Indeed, there are at least two templates of which I am aware for gaging the potential affect of busing on local schools. One is the Kansas City template; the other is the Charlotte template. The Charlotte template is the one referred to in the above post, recently described in the Courier-Journal. The Kansas City template occurred about a decade earlier and I have written to this effect in an earlier post on another thread. Essentially, the post-busing situation in both cities, hardly geographically proximate and occurring a decade apart, is strikingly similar. There is a frantic attempt by many in the community to maintain some semblance of racial balance in the schools. In Kansas City it was estimated that up to $1 billion was spent in an attempt to make inner-city schools attractive to suburban students.

 

"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." See: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html

 

There is no reason to believe that the Louisville/Jefferson County would be any different than either of our sister cities. That is, schools would shortly take on the demographic characteristics of their immediate neighborhoods. Ethnic and racial groups, when given free choice, still tend to cluster together in America. After all, as Dr. King said "the most segregated area of American life is Sunday morning church".

 

If Jefferson County reverts to a pre-busing configuration, one would expect that the football powers that existed in the early 70s may again become powerful. One caveat: how about the big Catholics? Even adjusting for inflation, tuition at private schools has risen to dizzying heights. Parents will weigh whether to send their sons and daughters to nearby neighborhood schools or to pay over $8,000 in tuition to send their sons and daughters to Catholic high schools. It is certainly plausible to believe that Catholic schools will take major enrollment hits as a result of changes brought about by the abolition of busing. As has been raised on this board a number of times previously, one of the advantages St. Xavier and Trinity enjoy over schools such as Male and Manual in football is an approximately 2-1 advantage in numbers of boys. How far does this numerical advantage have to dwindle before parity arrives in football? And, will there be differences in the manner in which individual Catholic school's enrollment are affected?

 

I believe that this issue is perhaps going to become the major issue in high school athletics in Jefferson County over the next two or three years. Hopefully, other BGPers can weigh in with additional analysis.

[thomam]

Wow, diogenes, very insightful. Thanks for contributing. You seem to know a lot, so I was curious. Could JCPS go back to neighborhood schools and effectively keep Male, Manual, Butler as schools with no neighborhood areas or resides area?

[RockPride]

^ Yes.....it was that way when I was in high and there were still districts...

 

To answer your question....I feel that Eastern and Ballard would see a huge boost if districts came back into play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[TigerPaw18]

wow, diogenes, very insightful. Thanks for contributing. You seem to know alot so I was curious. Could JCPS go back to neighborhoods schools and effectively keep Male, Manual, Butler as schools with no neighborhood areas or resides area?

 

This all plays into what I was saying a few months ago about Fern Creek hoping to become the last "true" traditional. If that happens and the neighborhood school is reinstituted, which many educators think WILL happen, Fern Creek keeps ALL THE KIDS in its resides area, except those that choose private school, which are plenty! As I understand it under the plan Male, Butler and Manual will have to have a resides area for their programs. Currently they have none. FC as a TRUE traditional would also have a resides area, likely 40291 and would no longer lose kids to Male or Butler and all would also take NON Traditional students based on resides area. Not certain how Manual would be handled because its a different program.

 

Interesting footnote, currently South 1st Street in Louisville is in Jeffersontowns "Resides" area. That is a shady set up. My wife and I looked at a Victorian thinking about turning it into a Bed and Breakfast and checked on the schools for the kids, I assumed they would go to Manual, no dice J-Town is the home school. If you live two Blocks over its Iroquois.

[rockmom]

I'm not sure how that works, thomam.

 

Essentially, that would, IMO, mean creating a sort of "independent" school district to encompass those schools you mention, I would believe. I'm not sure what would happen athletically in either case.

 

As to "neighborhood" schools. I admit some confusion as to a "reversal" to neighborhood schools. Right now, as it was explained to me when exploring the options available to my children when entering high school, every student is assigned to a "home" school, depending upon where they live. At the time, our "home" school would have been Seneca. There were no restrictions regarding enrollment in Seneca, as long as we lived in the assigned "home area".

 

I guess my question regarding the issue, and it's not an athletic one, is that the only "real" change I see is that instead of kids having a wide option of choices of specialized programs, everyone gets the same education in each school (theoretically of course). I wonder what that will do to the overall quality of the JCPS. Right now, there are underperforming schools, of course, but as a whole the school system highly regarded nationally as a model for others, and as a success.

 

Also, busing as I remember it no longer exists. Instead a complex formula of quotas based on many factors, of which racial balance is one, is in place to avoid imbalance.

 

I wonder what will happen to the overall quality of education if the magnet and traditional designations disappear.

 

Then, I wonder what will happen to the Catholic schools. For instance, I think that schools like T & X will find less of an impact (positive or negative) than DeSales and Holy Cross. For instance, if every kid is mandated to attend the school in his/her neighborhood, what about those who would wind up in some under-performing schools? Is their going to be a period in which those underperforming schools will have to meet the standard of the rest of the system? Iroquois, for instance, has come a long way, but has a long way to go. Would some families choose Holy Cross or DeSales instead? It could actually help those schools who are near schools that parents don't feel adequately meet the needs and goals of their students.

 

I know I'm an idealist, but I like to think that in sending kids to school that there is choice for parents. I like to think that athletics and other extracurricular offerings are considered, so that a student has a full, well-rounded beginning to life. I happen to believe that kids who can choose their way in life make better students, better people later in life.

 

I don't know the answer to your athletic question. I guess if I was a parent facing the situation of parents in Charlotte or Kansas City faced/face, I'd ask myself 3 questions:

 

1) Can I impact or help improve the school in my area?

2) Should I move to a better school area?

3) Can I afford private school?

 

In the end, I think it's far to early to discuss what will happen to the football programs in Jefferson County. I think there's a far more worrisome and dangerous issue to deal with, and that is in losing all the ground Jefferson County has worked so hard to gain educationally.

[thomam]

No one really gained from bussing.

 

Schools gained from open enrollment but in that type of system is ther is a gain, someone also has to lose. Everyone can't win in an open enrollment system and everyones knows it. Schools are not equal as they should be because they are all under the umbrella of JCPS. JCPS has selected the schools they want to succeed the most and everyone knows this.

 

Rockmom, those are three good questions that parent should have to ask. If you live in a coomunity you don't want it run down. You should want to take pride in the school in your community and send your kids there. That doesn't happen in Louisville because of how the system is setup. It should be neighborhood schools and if you don't like it then those three questions you should think long and hard about.

[RockPride]

No one really gained from bussing.

Actually Trinity and St. Xavier gained mightily.

[thomam]

true but public schools didn't.

[rockmom]

No one really gained from bussing.

 

Schools gained from open enrollment but in that type of system is ther is a gain, someone also has to lose. Everyone can't win in an open enrollment system and everyones knows it. Schools are not equal as they should be because they are all under the umbrella of JCPS. JCPS has selected the schools they want to succeed the most and everyone knows this.

 

I think it's indisputable that busing DID serve it's purpose. How long would it have taken Jefferson County to desegregate their schools and even begin to attempt equality among their schools?!

 

So, you don't like open enrollment, obviously. How do you address then, in a system as large as Jefferson County, the different needs and levels of academics of your students in each school? Right now, kids who choose a magnet or academic program are "pooled" in a school. That creates an opportunity, that's able to be managed and funded reasonably. You can't offer all those choices in every school.

 

Do you think that there is a way to ensure that every school is equal if we go to a "neighborhood" school model? How can we ensure that equality throughout the system? I don't see how doing away with the system we have now will benefit the schools or the students.

[rockmom]

 

Rockmom, those are three good questions that parent should have to ask. If you live in a coomunity you don't want it run down. You should want to take pride in the school in your community and send your kids there. That doesn't happen in Louisville because of how the system is setup. It should be neighborhood schools and if you don't like it then those three questions you should think long and hard about.

 

I guess an even more pertinent question I would ask is:

 

If the school in my area is not adequate to my child's needs right now, am I willing to risk 4 years of his/her education and preparation for the future on a possibly futile task?

[thomam]

if thats the case then you move onto your second and third questions you posted.

[thomam]

By speaking up and demanding it. Saving all this money on not bussing kids all over the county could be used to fix schools who right now during open enrollment are now where equal to other schools.

 

The way you address the needs is to make sure that every school has upper level courses and advanced programs, not just a few of them.

 

It can and will benefits schools, students, and make communities stronger.

 

And the magnet and options program is a sham. Very few students actually use it for its full worth.

 

I think it's indisputable that busing DID serve it's purpose. How long would it have taken Jefferson County to desegregate their schools and even begin to attempt equality among their schools?!

 

So, you don't like open enrollment, obviously. How do you address then, in a system as large as Jefferson County, the different needs and levels of academics of your students in each school? Right now, kids who choose a magnet or academic program are "pooled" in a school. That creates an opportunity, that's able to be managed and funded reasonably. You can't offer all those choices in every school.

 

Do you think that there is a way to ensure that every school is equal if we go to a "neighborhood" school model? How can we ensure that equality throughout the system? I don't see how doing away with the system we have now will benefit the schools or the students.