Re-segregation in Seattle Schools & Diversity

When we embrace diversity in public education, are we achieving this goal? The Seattle Times has covered an in-depth problem of re-segregation (for race) since the Supreme Court system ruled against the race tie-breaker to try and create mixed schools and busing. Busing was a temporary solution, and having students drive long periods of time across Seattle isn’t an efficient or long lasting solution. While I agree that racial diversity is important, are we ignoring other types of diversity that are integral to creating a truly diverse society?

One sub-point made by the articles is socio-economic diversity. Though this is part of racial diversity, it has large impacts on school districts. Since schools are mostly funded by property taxes, won’t they be inherently unequal if schools don’t have the same financial resources? Students who have parents in higher socio-economic brackets usually have additional resources- time, tutors, and extra sports, to supplement public school education.

Housing barriers in the past also affect the diversity of school. With old housing laws that were explicitly discriminatory, it still leads to segregation in housing markets. If we base schools by neighborhood location, we will create racial and socio-economic discrimination.

It seems unfair that property taxes are the basis of funding public schools and there is limited resource sharing. We need to redistribute taxes and resources to poorer districts. A child’s education should not be limited or based on his or her parent’s financial resources.

We don’t provide enough funding and support for our students- but we also need to expand our definition of diversity beyond race, and even my suggestion of looking at socio-economic. This includes more language classes, different types of art and cultural exposure, broadening history from US and European to include Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America. The list is endless…

Students of all backgrounds deserve the best education possible.

See the link below to review the Seattle Time’s Articles/ Special Reports:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/local/schoolresegregation.html