Merger of Memphis and County School Districts Revives Race and Class Challenges
MEMPHIS — When thousands of white students abandoned the Memphis schools 38 years ago rather than attend classes with blacks under a desegregation plan fueled by busing, Joseph A. Clayton went with them. He quit his job as a public school principal to head an all-white private school and later won election to the board of the mostly white suburban district next door.
Now, as the overwhelmingly black Memphis school district is being dissolved into the majority-white Shelby County schools, Mr. Clayton is on the new combined 23-member school board overseeing the marriage. And he warns that the pattern of white flight could repeat itself, with the suburban towns trying to secede and start their own districts.
“There’s the same element of fear,” said Mr. Clayton, 79. “In the 1970s, it was a physical, personal fear. Today the fear is about the academic decline of the Shelby schools.”
“As far as racial trust goes,” Mr. Clayton, who is white, added, “I don’t think we’ve improved much since the 1970s.”
The merger — a result of actions by the Memphis school board and City Council, a March referendum and a federal court order — is the largest school district consolidation in American history and poses huge logistical challenges. Memphis teachers are unionized, Shelby County’s are not; the county owns its yellow buses, the city relies on a contractor; and the two districts use different textbooks and different systems to evaluate teachers.
Toughest of all may be bridging the chasms of race and class. Median family income in Memphis is $32,000 a year, compared with the suburban average of $92,000; 85 percent of students in Memphis are black, compared with 38 percent in Shelby County.
But Kenya Bradshaw, who was recently elected secretary of a separate 21-member commission set up to recommend policies for combining the new districts, sees the merger as a chance for Memphis “to re-envision its educational system.”
“I hope people can see that this is an opportunity to reflect on our history and not make the same mistakes,” said Ms. Bradshaw, an advocate for educational equity, who is black. “If people are leaving for reasons that they don’t want their children to be around children of color or children who are poor, then I say to them, ‘I bid you farewell.’ ”
Though race has become the elephant in the room, the process actually began last winter as a struggle over finances.
Shelby County includes Memphis and six incorporated suburbs to its north and east. Tax money from the entire county is distributed to the two districts based on student population. Memphis, with 103,000 students, compared with 47,000 in the county, gets more of the money, though the suburbs contribute more per capita.
Fearing that suburban politicians and Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature might alter this arrangement to allow more tax money to stay in the suburbs, Memphis voted in December to surrender the school charter. Multiple lawsuits ensued, and a federal judge ruled on Sept. 28 that the two districts would be governed by a unified board but would run separately for two years, and then would combine in 2013.
In the mid-1960s, Memphis had about 130,000 students, nearly equally split among whites and blacks, in segregated schools. Efforts to desegregate were met with subterfuge and delay, said Daniel Kiel, a University of Memphis law professor who has written about the topic.
Federally ordered busing in 1973 provoked white flight, with about 40,000 of the system’s 71,000 white students abandoning the system in four years.
More recently, the suburbs have diversified, as middle-class black families left behind an impoverished central city. But the Shelby school board remained all white, and much of the system still seems segregated. Collierville High School, outside Memphis, was 82 percent white last year, while Southwind High, 10 miles away, also outside the city limits, was 94 percent black.
As for the city, Marcus Pohlmann, a political science professor at Rhodes College, said that he had hoped to compare student achievement among middle class and impoverished schools, but that he could not.
“There are no middle-class black schools in Memphis,” he said. “They’re all poor.”
Despite the current inequality, nobody expects the demographics of schools to change much, because most students in both districts are assigned to neighborhood schools and housing tends to be segregated.
That has not changed the minds of people like Mr. Clayton, who told The New York Times in 1975 that he had left the public schools because of mounting chaos caused by desegregation.
Mr. Clayton, who was the principal of two traditionally white Memphis high schools from 1964 to 1973, won election in 1998 to the Shelby County school board, where he and his colleagues were shocked when the Memphis board first voted for the merger.
“We all tried to figure out how to stop it,” he said.
They have not given up. The legislature passed a law in February that, as of September 2013, lifts a prohibition on the formation of autonomous school districts, and five of the six Shelby County suburbs have hired consultants to study the finances of breaking away.
For now, the two new boards are trying to combine the districts, which, improbably, have both long had their headquarters in a rambling office building in central Memphis. A corridor linking the two wings of the building has, for years, had double-locked doors whose glass panels are covered with particle board.
“This is our Berlin Wall,” said Irving Hamer, Memphis’s deputy superintendent.
Billy Orgel, a telecommunications executive who was elected president of the merged school board, asked officials of both districts to break down the barricade. “We need both systems’ employees to see each other, work together and become not just colleagues but friends,” he said.
Mr. Orgel said the doors had been opened, but a few days later, people in the building said they were still locked.
The crowd at the inaugural meeting last month of the combined 23-member school board for Memphis and Shelby County.
biwtican
michigan November 6, 2011
the key question that is never dealt with in these discussions is whether it is acceptable for the black schools to out perform the white schools. in america the answer has always been no. if the black kids do to well on the tests the call is for the test to be changed because it is to easy or somebody cheated. if america would spend more time teaching instead of concentrating on fixing the results so that the dominate racial group always ends up on top they might have a chance at creating a decent school district.
E. Nowak
Chicagoland, IL November 6, 2011
I'm nauseated at the sub-text of the comments here. A lot of the comments seem to be implying that white kids are smart and rich, black kids are poor and stupid. And therefore, white kids shouldn't have to mix with black kids.
I'm lost here. Because I know a lot of dumb white rich kids. And I know a lot of smart poor black kids. The problem is, a lot of stupid rich white kids still get into college. But a lot of smart black kids drop out of high school. The problem certainly isn't the kids. It's the parents.
I think when Mr. Clayton said, “I don’t think we’ve improved much since the 1970s,” I would say he's right -- HE and his ilk HAVEN'T improved at all.
Thinker
There goes the property value of Shelby county residents.
Those who decry racism should just send their children to an 85% black, hispanic or free lunch school. No school age children? Thought so.
Howard Haymes
Falls Church, Va. November 6, 2011
If my kids can't get a good education,why care about anything else or anyone else?Answer that one!
Aaron McDuffie
Hartford, CT November 6, 2011
I take issue with JasonM's (Post #2's) comment.
White flight in its truest sense is NOT "a completely rational and defensible response to the prospect of subjecting your kids to violent, ill-disciplined, academically backwards, delinquent poor students". White flight in fact, is the a reaction of whites who can't stand the 'horro' of living with minorities and sending their children to desegregated schools. What happened 30-some years ago was indeed white flight. What's happening here seems more like concerned parents caring about the future of their high-achieving school district to me.
ackridgek
philadelphila November 6, 2011
What truly irritates me are those who conviently leave out the fact that they've had a 300 year *jump* on the others (black and brown people)...they were made to try and even things out through force...war (Civil War), and/or the national guard...they were not giving up their *priviledge*...wiht out a fight. I don't see the Memphis County School District giving in to this *merger* without the same kind of fight.
ackridgek
philadelphila November 6, 2011
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/06/mississippi.hate.crime/index.html
http://www.city-data.com/forum/mississippi/27683-racism-worries-natchez-...
These two items are the just the *tip* of the iceberg...racism is alive and well 50 years after the civil rights movements. There are certain demographics of society (the south) that are still living in the 1950s...come hell or high water...they are not trying to *integrate* with anyone...especially the others (black and brown folk).
Bluefish
The uncomfortable truth is that when a population of underachievers (with significant behavior and social problems) is suddenly integrated with a population of normal achievers & overachievers (without significant behavioral or social problems prior to the integration) as one large captive audience with a structured educational curriculum, the effect is predictable: It’s beneficial for many (perhaps most) individuals in the “underachievers” group who have adequate family support given the new resources, but detrimental to most in the “normal achievers” group as more resources must focus on enforcing discipline and the constant (often futile) effort to raise the bar of the underachieving group. So, advantages accrue to the underachievers at the expense of the normal/overachievers. Along with this comes an uncomfortable cultural adaptation for all, which is more likely to be experienced as a negative cultural change for the normal/overachievers, and a positive one for the underachievers.
Gary
Virginia November 6, 2011
Can we be honest here? We know this will be the end of quality education in this county. The suburbs will be bled for a time, with nothing to staunch the wound, eventually no more blood as tax rates peak and everyone who can afford it has moved across to Mississippi or Arkansas. Quality of life in Shelby County plunges as everyone who cares about such things is now in West Memphis. The question is, why, half a century after the civil rights movement, do we know this is going to be so?
GHWOOD
Boston November 6, 2011
Don't like the rules than leave, black or white it does not matter but if it matters to you then "leave" and segregate yourself. If you are still of the mind and belief that a persons color of skin determines intellect and success then by all means PLEASE LEAVE THE COUNTRY or live in the south because the rest of the country knows the year is 2011 and we do have a black president.
Hard Work Pays
New York City November 6, 2011
The "liberal elite" handwringing would be amusing were it not so debilitating. In response to #6, why does it have to be racism that prompts people to move? Aren't an inadequate school system and a perception the environment is unsafe adequate reason to do so? I am not white, and were I to find myself in such a situation, I would move myself, to what LK characterizes as "bunkers".
The point is that school systems are not just a function of the money thrown at them, they are a function of the parents valuing education, and then recognizing they have to discipline their children to take advantage of whatever educational opportunities a district might offer. Absent that, children will naturally choose to work less; consequently, they will learn less, and then - because of the liberal focus on equal outcomes, not equal opportunities, will demand more and more of the resources available, to the detriment of those students who actually did work, to the detriment of the parents who actually took the time to discipline their children.
The kneejerk racism complaint has done little to lift up the fortunes of black and Latino America...if you want to see a minority that does get it done right, look at the Asians and emulate them. Then, perhaps, people in Shelby County will want to move back to Memphis.
Randolph Phillips
Shiloh, GA 31826 November 6, 2011
People who do not want to associate with each other are not forced to do so in a free society.
Busing was one of the great errors the Courts and federal government made. Instead of educational resources being used to educate all kids, schools and curriculum was hijacked primarily to enforce and implement racial integration.
This merger of Menphis and Shelby County schools--by federal court order, it appears, is merely Busing under another name. No more and no less. Adn the rsults will likely be the same as say, St. Louis, Mo.
We need to get the federal government out of classrooms, and quit borrowing money at the federal level to create a National Public education system, run by Washington bureaucrats.
Pluribus
TEXAS November 6, 2011
The primary issue here is not one of race or poor, but related to a parent's desire to have their children's education advanced conducted in an environment where parents are committed to implanting a will and faculty to learn; and where this is supported with a commitment to positive virtues and values for developing and promoting healthy behavioral attributes, including an attitude of respect. Memphis obviously lacks this discipline, and unionized teachers can only add to the milieu. Federal legislation will not resolve the root cause of the problem, which can only come about with the change in the moral behavior of the majority of the parents in Memphis community.
wim
The personal, physical fear of the 1970s is now the fear of academic decline. It wasn't true then, it isn't true today.
AJ
is a trusted commenter Midwest November 6, 2011
Let's call a spade a spade: a child from an impoverished background, regardless of race, will absolutely struggle in a classroom full of middle and upper class kids.
Well the problem with your claim is the word "absolutely." That's just not true. In the upper middle class midwestern suburb in which I live about 12 percent of the students come from the neighboring suburb from poor non-English speaking immigrant families. Because they are a significant minority and don't overwhelm the system, the school puts a lot of resources into helping these kids. Yes most still struggle but they graduate at a much higher rater from highschool (like 90 precent) than they would in another district. And the district works tirelessly to make find the academically talented among those kids and give them every resource you can imagine. They "scout" these kids in grade school and then: Trips to mueseums, opera, theater and movies to up their cultural literacy. Trips to Washington DC, New York and California to give them a better sense of the country. Free one on one tutoring for college enterance exams to put them on par with their wealthy classmates. A private college placement person to make sure they go to college and with a scholarship.
But it only works because of the numbers here. The huge amount of resources combined with a low number of students who tax the system.
Eleanor Bowman
Brooks County, Georgia November 6, 2011
Back around 1969, as a young white teacher, I was in the vanguard of the desegregation effort in the Memphis City Schools. My previous teaching experience had been in an all-white private girls' school and a predominantly white blue-collar public school, both in Memphis. I had also been educated in all-white Memphis public schools and an all-white local college. The all-black school I was assigned to was deep in the ghetto. The experience was a revelation to me. We were right next door to a Firestone plant where they burned tires all day long and the air was filled with the ash. The school was horribly over crowded -- as were the classes. Discipline was brutal -- lots of whippings with a broad leather strap done publicly in the halls. As to textbooks, I only had enough to pass out and get back -- so assigning homework was difficult. And those that we had had been chewed on by mice and rats -- which ran around on the floors. I had to teach with my doors locked to keep the local drug dealers out. When the going got rough, the principal withdrew behind his "pawnshop"-like bars that protected him and his office staff. In spite of all of this, I had some of the best and most highly motivated students I have ever encountered. I could not believe the conditions these kids had to -- and did -- deal with. I had no idea how privileged I had been. I had taken for granted such things as clean and safe schools and textbooks for everyone. I would like to tell you that I took these monumental problems on and devoted my life to turning things around. But, I didn't. After one year, I left. It was too much for me. But, I have felt guilty over leaving my wonderful students ever since. I could leave; they couldn't. I don't think most white people who have never had to go to school in such conditions recognize the obstacles poor black kids have to overcome. It is so much easier to judge. And, until attitudes change, I do not hold out much hope for combining city and county schools.
Gary
Virginia November 6, 2011
The Times sighs with delight as it proffers this story, wanting to relive a bit of the civil rights era. However, the only outcome from this will be poorer public schools and better private ones in Shelby County.
Charles W.
It should not be surprising that middle class parents, white or black, do NOT want their children going to the same schools as underclass children whose parents do NOT place any value on education. It would appear that Memphis will have another case of middle class flight beyond the school district limits.
Joe Cussek
Memphis, TN November 6, 2011
The selective race issues are fabricated for sensationalism. It's all about a failed school system (Memphis City) taking over a very successful system (Shelby County). People in Memphis City Schools couldn't possibly do worse than they have to date for education. The new system will be really large and likely won't be as bad as people in the County system fear. The new system will still produce a disproportionately low group of college ready students....It's about 3% for the city now & 45% for the county. The new rate will likely be around 15%....the conversation should really be about how we prepare the 85% who won't go to college or make it in college for a career other than working at Walmart, collecting unemployment or dealing drugs.
R Head
editorial November 6, 2011
No doubt some of the problem is Racial. However many studies show that the success of a student is very much related o whether their parents went to college,value education and promote respect for education. here is a big difference in the homes of many all white families in these things. These students usually do poorly and have low achievements regardless of color.
I have seen ,in a all white area.a tremendous difference on achievement based on the above factors. My grandchildren are in a system where 90% of the parents are college grads, value teachers and have total involvement with the school functions. Books are read at home ,homework is always done,PTA meetings attended,children are put to bed at a reasonable time,TV time is monitored,teachers are supported,many after school projects done with volunteers and any signs of bullying or violence is stopped and dealt with.
It relly is a whole culture concept and economics enters but it really is the extra school and adult actions that allow good performance.
Jacob handelsman
Houston November 6, 2011
Let's tell it like it is. Black students bring with them a whole host of problems:poor competency skills, poor impulse control, violence against students and teachers and several others which anyone who has experience as either a student or teacher in a mostly black school is well-aware. In other words, adding this demographic in substantial numbers to a white-majority school is a recipe for rapid failure in every aspect of public school education.
another cup
Memphis November 6, 2011
Funny, no mention of the ineffective and overpaid superintendent of MCS.
NikkiE
USA to Berlin November 6, 2011
@ Hardwork-- I disagree that the differences between the two school systems is purely about attitudes towards education and parental involvement. I went to suburban, predominately White schools all my life and trust me, parents (esp at the highschool level) were really not that involved or cared about their child's education outside of the actual grades. How the kids got the grades, no one really paid attention.
I think there is more at work here. For example, I am willing to bet that despite receiving less money, Shelby county spends more per head per child on education costs because they have significantly smaller number of students than the Memphis schools system. Higher student spending allows for more resources in the school and higher pay for teachers, which means newer and more equipment as well better teachers from a more competitive applicant pool. I would also be willing to venture that the parents and the local community are supplementing student spending with donations and participation in local fundraising. And with an avg income of 92,000, that is no small amount being generated. And finally, I would also wager that the kids in Shelby have a college prep curriculum, while Memphis schools probably don"t have nearly as many advance placement or college courses because somewhere the powers that be assume the students will probably not make that far.
Like I said these are guesses, but these were some of the differences that I noted between my predominately White schools and the predominately Black schools in my area. And the thing is most parents, didn't even realize how significant these differences were. They just knew some schools were better than others depending on where you lived.
GeniusIQ179
SLO, CA November 6, 2011
I used to feel sorry for the "blacks" as a society of people who had once been enslaved and then segregated, neighborhoods red-lined by the banks, and completely ignored by their political representatives...
A 1960's story--
I worked with HFC and CIT making small consumer loans to those "blacks" living in Los Angeles's blighted areas...
90 days later, I was on the collections desk calling them for repayment...
60 days after that, I was in those blighted areas of Watts and Compton collecting loans and reposessing cars...
While there, I noted that streets were dirty and not repaired, yards of homes never watered and grass dead, cars all had man-made dents and scrapes...
The women were always found at home, but the men could only be found in bars or outside of bars on the sidewalks, or elsewhere that I never knew... While their children ran free, I saw babys and children who showed ugly signs of abuse, of the very worst kind...
I eventually quit the job in disgust.
===
Since then I have had a opinion that the California Welfare System is by far; the worst item in society... I do not believe that you can buy happiness with that kind of money... You can only extend the misery of those who cannot seem to help themselves, generation upon generation upon, etc...
===
During this 50+ year period I've watched the Welfare system be milked by the "blacks", while their children's schools were ignored until they desindigrated...
I've watched as crazy "black" politicians screamed and cried for their downtrodden brothers and sisters plight...
===
Through all of this, I've watched the other minorities grow from immigrants to upstanding citizens...
Now however, there is hope, I have a new son-in-law coming into my family, and he is "black" as the ace of spades... He works, sometimes two jobs, during this depression that Obama calls a recession... He is a joy to behold, and treats my daughter well...
Jim B.
Ashland, MA November 6, 2011
Show me the fathers and I'll then tell you what kind of school system it is.
fly
I hope this turns out better then what happened in PG County (MD) in the 80's when the courts instigated mass busing and closing/combining of schools. My son not only lost over a year of school, but was traumatized concerning race relations for much longer. Most of the white kids stood no chance, they entered an environment where surviving was the rule and the girls (my daughter the next year) fared much much worse then the boys. Many of the white children just surrendered to the instability/violence and in turn became very meek. It became almost a Stockholm Syndrome situation. Soon, the schools became prison-like with discipline the main goal instead of teaching, and PG police guarding the doors. It corrected itself with most of the white family's just moving, and the ones left, in semi-segregated science and tech classes. PG County soon afterward became (I am quite sure) the most black county in the entire nation (and the most segregated). I do have to say that even though most schools are back to being segregated (almost all black),
they are much better then they were in the 80's. I think all races now realize the importance of education.
NikkiE
USA to Berlin November 6, 2011
And this is life in post-racial America. Separate but equal school systems about 60 years after Brown vs. the Board of Education, and people are still justifying them--still running scared from the supposed danger that "the other" will cause. As if poverty and race are some type of infectious disease that corrupts and taints. I always chuckle when people say that we live in a post racial world, as if eliminating ridiculous racial attitudes and social inequity is a destination we reach, not an ongoing process that we as a society have to commit ourselves to doing- a process of questioning, addressing, challenging.
However, unfortunately today if you even mention race/ethnicity or talk about its implications in the US, you are called a "race baiter." As if you are just sowing some imaginary discord or dredging up things from too far in the past. As if questions about equity are no longer issues. And as this article shows it isn't that far in the past. We are just deluding ourselves into avoidance and complacency. It is amazing to me, how people think 60 years of progress (admittedly good progress) will thoroughly undo centuries of questionable thinking, suspicion,and paranoia.
mike
chicago November 6, 2011
Funny, there was an article last week in Wapo about how Prince George county is upper middle class and almost all Black. The people interviewed said it was a "comfort" issue.
So when Blacks do it it;s for comfort. When Whites do it they are racist.
Amazing how full of it the East Coast Liberal elite are.
R. Bentley
Indiana November 6, 2011
Freedom is partly the right to associate with those you chose, and not to be forced to associate (and give money to) with those you don't. This forced integration is a lose-lose decision, just another instance of a (liberal) minority imposing its will on the majority.
LK
Connecticut November 6, 2011
Racism is alive and well in Memphis. That not much has changed since the 1970s is an understatement. The poverty and crime is so bad there that whites feel completely justified in establishing bunkers in the east far beyond the city bus routes.
Memphis is a microcasm that can help explain some of the broader dynamics of today's Republican party. Whites in Memphis did not merely escape to the eastern suburbs but established all-white Christian schools where science is disdained, creationism taught along with revisionist Southern history and a literal interpretation of the Bible adhered to, which, among other things, puts women back in their place (somewhere just beyond barefoot and pregnant).
As far as the South is concerned, this whole "government is bad" meme can be traced back to (1) the Civil War and (2) the Civil Rights Act. If you can dismantle the Federal government, then it's state's rights all over again. With no Federal government telling you what to do, you can re-segregate schools and never, never bus a black kid again (or pay for their sorry education or free lunch); teach whatever cockamamie fables as facts you want; exclude anyone who's not a Christian -- particularly (black) Muslims and Yankee Jews -- and establish your own brand of morality police. The Southern version of Middle Eastern theocracy. Why the IRS hasn't stripped most Southern Baptist churches of their tax-exempt status is beyond me. They've turned into breeding grounds for far right wing political activists, much like mosques are accused of doing.
The big problem for Memphis is that 99.9% of it is in the 99%. A good portion of white Memphians need their Social Security and Medicare. So, how does one hang on to the benefits of big bad government, ie, entitlements, while trashing all the parts you don't like: a woman's right to choose, Civil Rights, freedom of religion, gun control, stem cell research or most any kind of science and certainly NPR.
Palmer1619
Warminster, PA November 6, 2011
It's too bad that the school districts in Shelby County didn't move on this years ago. The kids and the parents of today are a great deal different than those in the 1950s. There will undoubtedly be problems, but any change always brings problems. And while Shelby County may have some problems with the same old bigotry, in the long run, this segregation has got to stop. I think this will be beneficial to all.
Dennis
Minneapolis, MN November 6, 2011
It is interesting to hear white people claim that there isn't any rasicm in existence. When will people learn that there is only one race, the Human race. This is sad article on the progress of race relations.
JasonM
Bridgeport, Conn. November 6, 2011
Having learned nothing from 40 years of failed social engineering schemes, Memphis is doomed to repeat the past.
White flight is a completely rational and defensible response to the prospect of subjecting your kids to violent, ill-disciplined, academically backwards, delinquent poor students. Just ask yourself how many poor, free-lunch kids there are in the Scarsdale or Great Neck public schools. How many African-American kids from the projects attend Stuyvesant? Large numbers of urban underclass students are simply incompatible with serious learning taking place.
Having already ruined the city of Memphis through this socialist integration scheme, we can now look forward to the precipitous decline of the Shelby County economy and society. I predict that there will be surges in real estate values and school enrollment in Tipton County and Fayette County.
The cycle works like this: middle-class people move into an area and create stability, security, jobs and good schools. The welfare-dependent urban underclass follows them and brings crime, violence, delinquency and academic underperformance. The middle class flees the area they built and created, simply to maintain the basic values and quality of life they have a right to take for granted. Then the underclass follows them and the cycle begins anew. It moves much faster when the government is promoting the cycle.
Beth Quilter
S.E. Michigan November 6, 2011
This same situation occurred in Chattanooga in 1996, prompting me to move back to Michigan (because my job depended on the city school system, although I was not directly employed by it), where there are similar problems, but fewer people willing to abandon the educational system completely. When voters are asked "how would you like to cut your property taxes by 2/3rds?", they are more than willing to do that, despite the long-term consequences of their actions. Sometimes it makes more sense to dig into your pockets and spread the wealth than to abandon children who need education, job skills, and positive role models in their lives. Most of us in the field of education still have hope for the children, hope for the future, hope for racial equality, and hope for world peace. That's why we do what we do and hope for changes in how resources are allocated and how programs are evaluated. The current attitudes toward educational funding in this country are based on selfishness and stinginess. It's time for all of us (the 99% anyway)to be generous to other people's children and quit worrying about leaving wealth to our own children, who have learned to be self-supporting and contribute to their communities in a positive way.
Haim
New York, NY November 6, 2011
This article is an outrageous slander, and the proof of that is in the article itself. It shamelessly paints whites as racists for abandonging Memphis and its failed schools but blacks, as they move into the middle class, and as soon as they are able, abandon Memphis for exactly the same reasons: its catastrophic education policies and practices.
John Scanlon
Collingswood, NJ November 6, 2011
The Shelby County school system might look to the success of the Palm Beach County system. PBC has neighborhood schools enriched by district run magnet programs to help more evenly distribute ethnic populations. Memphis might in particular look at Don Estridge High Tech Middle School in Boca Raton. That school has a several year record for educating all students in Middle School, where very many minority students fall behind academically. Palm Beach County has managed to avoid severe budgetary disruption by essentially eliminating charter schools. The PBC system, classified as an urban district with 175,000 students, has evaded the scourge of ultimately ineffective charter schools gutting the public school population and disrupting the range of abilities found in every community.
moionfire
allentown, pa, usa November 6, 2011
Hopefully the merger improves the results of the mainly poor schools. I wonder how they will deal with union issues since the rich and suburban school is non-unionized. I believe that most school districts should be merged. This country has way to many school districts. Money and inequality could decrease if we had fewer as resources would be shared among the richer communities and the poor.
Dr.Meh
Boston November 6, 2011
Let's call a spade a spade: a child from an impoverished background, regardless of race, will absolutely struggle in a classroom full of middle and upper class kids. That means that all the smart kids lose as tons of funding gets shunted into getting the kids from the Memphis school system within spitting distance of grade level. Successful schools will magically become failing schools under No Child Left Behind, causing administrators to double down and raise those test scores at the cost of more interesting education.
This is why our universities and our industry are filled with talented immigrants. We've sucked the life out of our science and math classes, leaving only a few people skilled and disciplined enough to go into engineering and do what they need to. How nice it is that suddenly, however many thousand kids are slightly less below average. Too bad that the smart kids, the good kids, the future kids have to suffer.
One more thing: even when they go to college, kids from impoverished backgrounds drop out at an amazing rate because they're not skilled enough. Swapping them into a better school district is not going to remedy the lifelong poverty of enrichment, anti-intellectual culture, and neglect by their families.
The lowest common denominator will be the only thing served here.
Dave
Europe November 6, 2011
" . . . people like Mr. Clayton, who told The New York Times in 1975 that he had left the public schools because of mounting chaos caused by desegregation."
It's not quite fair to blame desegregation for causing chaos. It's the people themselves who cause the chaos -- because they don't like the idea, they refuse to try to make it work and they've basically given up before they even begin. They have all kinds of preconceived ideas that they're not willing to give up. Why? Because they've lived segregated lives since birth.
The whole idea is to reverse everything. But people have to be willing to start the process . . .
Johnny Cakes
New York November 6, 2011
This article is a picture of America, not just Memphis. Segregation and racial division remain rampant. Dr King's dream is still unfulfilled.
Jackie Rawlings
california November 6, 2011
They say if you don't learn from your mistakes you repeat it. Now the school might have a bigger problem. Civil Rights and the Law that doesn't allow a State to discriminate. Now if whites choose to separate by forming a new schools for whites the State will still have to pay the black schools equal funding. Why would Americans of all races pay for funding their denied but given to a selected group. We have been done that road before we had equality. The days of segregation are gone no matter how many racist don't like it.
Katie
Portland, Oregon November 6, 2011
I think it is well past time for Mr. Clayton to take his racist views and permanently retire.
V. Oglette
Big mistake. Look at Mobile County Public Schools in Mobile, Alabama. Cities are dropping out like flies because of the issues faced in a way too large school district. Good luck with all that!
Lee Pefley
'Bama November 6, 2011
An absolute segregation of the races is the only way to restore
quality to American education. To waste taxpayer monies on attempting to educate the uneducable is analogous to trying to force democracy on Muslim countries.
Hard Work Pays
New York City November 6, 2011
Wow. If the people that left the first time around were undesirables, then perhaps we should have seen the Memphis school district do well following their departure, and Shelby County do poorly. But that was NOT the case. For all the sanctimoniousness of "re-envisioning education" and "avoiding mistakes of the past" the point is this merger confiscates the hard work Shelby County has put into their school district, and punishes the Shelby County student body for having had parents who valued education enough to work at it.
This is NOT about race. It is about one excellent school district where resources are made available and students apparently work hard and parents work with their children and another school district where the outcomes speak of the resources and, perhaps more importantly, the effort of students, parents and teachers.
If Memphis really wanted to fix this problem, they would take steps to make sure their students stayed in school, did their homework and respected their teachers; the parents would make sure that - no matter how much work they had to do - they would insist and ensure their children did the school work, attended class and tried to excel.
Otherwise, we WILL see another flight - and it will not be because of race, however much race may line up on either side of the debate.
LK
Connecticut November 6, 2011
Racism is alive and well in Memphis. That not much has changed since the 1970s is an understatement. The poverty and crime is so bad there that whites feel completely justified in establishing bunkers in the east far beyond the city bus routes.
Memphis is a microcasm that can help explain some of the broader dynamics of today's Republican party. Whites in Memphis did not merely escape to the eastern suburbs but established all-white Christian schools where science is disdained, creationism taught along with revisionist Southern history and a literal interpretation of the Bible adhered to, which, among other things, puts women back in their place (somewhere just beyond barefoot and pregnant).
As far as the South is concerned, this whole "government is bad" meme can be traced back to (1) the Civil War and (2) the Civil Rights Act. If you can dismantle the Federal government, then it's state's rights all over again. With no Federal government telling you what to do, you can re-segregate schools and never, never bus a black kid again (or pay for their sorry education or free lunch); teach whatever cockamamie fables as facts you want; exclude anyone who's not a Christian -- particularly (black) Muslims and Yankee Jews -- and establish your own brand of morality police. The Southern version of Middle Eastern theocracy. Why the IRS hasn't stripped most Southern Baptist churches of their tax-exempt status is beyond me. They've turned into breeding grounds for far right wing political activists, much like mosques are accused of doing.
The big problem for Memphis is that 99.9% of it is in the 99%. A good portion of white Memphians need their Social Security and Medicare. So, how does one hang on to the benefits of big bad government, ie, entitlements, while trashing all the parts you don't like: a woman's right to choose, Civil Rights, freedom of religion, gun control, stem cell research or most any kind of science and certainly NPR.
Hard Work Pays
New York City November 6, 2011
Wow. If the people that left the first time around were undesirables, then perhaps we should have seen the Memphis school district do well following their departure, and Shelby County do poorly. But that was NOT the case. For all the sanctimoniousness of "re-envisioning education" and "avoiding mistakes of the past" the point is this merger confiscates the hard work Shelby County has put into their school district, and punishes the Shelby County student body for having had parents who valued education enough to work at it.
This is NOT about race. It is about one excellent school district where resources are made available and students apparently work hard and parents work with their children and another school district where the outcomes speak of the resources and, perhaps more importantly, the effort of students, parents and teachers.
If Memphis really wanted to fix this problem, they would take steps to make sure their students stayed in school, did their homework and respected their teachers; the parents would make sure that - no matter how much work they had to do - they would insist and ensure their children did the school work, attended class and tried to excel.
Otherwise, we WILL see another flight - and it will not be because of race, however much race may line up on either side of the debate.
Haim
New York, NY November 6, 2011
This article is an outrageous slander, and the proof of that is in the article itself. It shamelessly paints whites as racists for abandonging Memphis and its failed schools but blacks, as they move into the middle class, and as soon as they are able, abandon Memphis for exactly the same reasons: its catastrophic education policies and practices.
Eleanor Bowman
Brooks County, Georgia November 6, 2011
Back around 1969, as a young white teacher, I was in the vanguard of the desegregation effort in the Memphis City Schools. My previous teaching experience had been in an all-white private girls' school and a predominantly white blue-collar public school, both in Memphis. I had also been educated in all-white Memphis public schools and an all-white local college. The all-black school I was assigned to was deep in the ghetto. The experience was a revelation to me. We were right next door to a Firestone plant where they burned tires all day long and the air was filled with the ash. The school was horribly over crowded -- as were the classes. Discipline was brutal -- lots of whippings with a broad leather strap done publicly in the halls. As to textbooks, I only had enough to pass out and get back -- so assigning homework was difficult. And those that we had had been chewed on by mice and rats -- which ran around on the floors. I had to teach with my doors locked to keep the local drug dealers out. When the going got rough, the principal withdrew behind his "pawnshop"-like bars that protected him and his office staff. In spite of all of this, I had some of the best and most highly motivated students I have ever encountered. I could not believe the conditions these kids had to -- and did -- deal with. I had no idea how privileged I had been. I had taken for granted such things as clean and safe schools and textbooks for everyone. I would like to tell you that I took these monumental problems on and devoted my life to turning things around. But, I didn't. After one year, I left. It was too much for me. But, I have felt guilty over leaving my wonderful students ever since. I could leave; they couldn't. I don't think most white people who have never had to go to school in such conditions recognize the obstacles poor black kids have to overcome. It is so much easier to judge. And, until attitudes change, I do not hold out much hope for combining city and county schools.
JasonM
Bridgeport, Conn. November 6, 2011
Having learned nothing from 40 years of failed social engineering schemes, Memphis is doomed to repeat the past.
White flight is a completely rational and defensible response to the prospect of subjecting your kids to violent, ill-disciplined, academically backwards, delinquent poor students. Just ask yourself how many poor, free-lunch kids there are in the Scarsdale or Great Neck public schools. How many African-American kids from the projects attend Stuyvesant? Large numbers of urban underclass students are simply incompatible with serious learning taking place.
Having already ruined the city of Memphis through this socialist integration scheme, we can now look forward to the precipitous decline of the Shelby County economy and society. I predict that there will be surges in real estate values and school enrollment in Tipton County and Fayette County.
The cycle works like this: middle-class people move into an area and create stability, security, jobs and good schools. The welfare-dependent urban underclass follows them and brings crime, violence, delinquency and academic underperformance. The middle class flees the area they built and created, simply to maintain the basic values and quality of life they have a right to take for granted. Then the underclass follows them and the cycle begins anew. It moves much faster when the government is promoting the cycle.
Dr.Meh
Boston November 6, 2011
Let's call a spade a spade: a child from an impoverished background, regardless of race, will absolutely struggle in a classroom full of middle and upper class kids. That means that all the smart kids lose as tons of funding gets shunted into getting the kids from the Memphis school system within spitting distance of grade level. Successful schools will magically become failing schools under No Child Left Behind, causing administrators to double down and raise those test scores at the cost of more interesting education.
This is why our universities and our industry are filled with talented immigrants. We've sucked the life out of our science and math classes, leaving only a few people skilled and disciplined enough to go into engineering and do what they need to. How nice it is that suddenly, however many thousand kids are slightly less below average. Too bad that the smart kids, the good kids, the future kids have to suffer.
One more thing: even when they go to college, kids from impoverished backgrounds drop out at an amazing rate because they're not skilled enough. Swapping them into a better school district is not going to remedy the lifelong poverty of enrichment, anti-intellectual culture, and neglect by their families.
The lowest common denominator will be the only thing served here.
mike
chicago November 6, 2011
Funny, there was an article last week in Wapo about how Prince George county is upper middle class and almost all Black. The people interviewed said it was a "comfort" issue.
So when Blacks do it it;s for comfort. When Whites do it they are racist.
Amazing how full of it the East Coast Liberal elite are.
NikkiE
USA to Berlin November 6, 2011
And this is life in post-racial America. Separate but equal school systems about 60 years after Brown vs. the Board of Education, and people are still justifying them--still running scared from the supposed danger that "the other" will cause. As if poverty and race are some type of infectious disease that corrupts and taints. I always chuckle when people say that we live in a post racial world, as if eliminating ridiculous racial attitudes and social inequity is a destination we reach, not an ongoing process that we as a society have to commit ourselves to doing- a process of questioning, addressing, challenging.
However, unfortunately today if you even mention race/ethnicity or talk about its implications in the US, you are called a "race baiter." As if you are just sowing some imaginary discord or dredging up things from too far in the past. As if questions about equity are no longer issues. And as this article shows it isn't that far in the past. We are just deluding ourselves into avoidance and complacency. It is amazing to me, how people think 60 years of progress (admittedly good progress) will thoroughly undo centuries of questionable thinking, suspicion,and paranoia.
Katie
Portland, Oregon November 6, 2011
I think it is well past time for Mr. Clayton to take his racist views and permanently retire.
R. Bentley
Indiana November 6, 2011
Freedom is partly the right to associate with those you chose, and not to be forced to associate (and give money to) with those you don't. This forced integration is a lose-lose decision, just another instance of a (liberal) minority imposing its will on the majority.
Dave
Europe November 6, 2011
" . . . people like Mr. Clayton, who told The New York Times in 1975 that he had left the public schools because of mounting chaos caused by desegregation."
It's not quite fair to blame desegregation for causing chaos. It's the people themselves who cause the chaos -- because they don't like the idea, they refuse to try to make it work and they've basically given up before they even begin. They have all kinds of preconceived ideas that they're not willing to give up. Why? Because they've lived segregated lives since birth.
The whole idea is to reverse everything. But people have to be willing to start the process . . .
R Head
editorial November 6, 2011
No doubt some of the problem is Racial. However many studies show that the success of a student is very much related o whether their parents went to college,value education and promote respect for education. here is a big difference in the homes of many all white families in these things. These students usually do poorly and have low achievements regardless of color.
I have seen ,in a all white area.a tremendous difference on achievement based on the above factors. My grandchildren are in a system where 90% of the parents are college grads, value teachers and have total involvement with the school functions. Books are read at home ,homework is always done,PTA meetings attended,children are put to bed at a reasonable time,TV time is monitored,teachers are supported,many after school projects done with volunteers and any signs of bullying or violence is stopped and dealt with.
It relly is a whole culture concept and economics enters but it really is the extra school and adult actions that allow good performance.
Johnny Cakes
New York November 6, 2011
This article is a picture of America, not just Memphis. Segregation and racial division remain rampant. Dr King's dream is still unfulfilled.
Jacob handelsman
Houston November 6, 2011
Let's tell it like it is. Black students bring with them a whole host of problems:poor competency skills, poor impulse control, violence against students and teachers and several others which anyone who has experience as either a student or teacher in a mostly black school is well-aware. In other words, adding this demographic in substantial numbers to a white-majority school is a recipe for rapid failure in every aspect of public school education.
Charles W.
It should not be surprising that middle class parents, white or black, do NOT want their children going to the same schools as underclass children whose parents do NOT place any value on education. It would appear that Memphis will have another case of middle class flight beyond the school district limits.
Beth Quilter
S.E. Michigan November 6, 2011
This same situation occurred in Chattanooga in 1996, prompting me to move back to Michigan (because my job depended on the city school system, although I was not directly employed by it), where there are similar problems, but fewer people willing to abandon the educational system completely. When voters are asked "how would you like to cut your property taxes by 2/3rds?", they are more than willing to do that, despite the long-term consequences of their actions. Sometimes it makes more sense to dig into your pockets and spread the wealth than to abandon children who need education, job skills, and positive role models in their lives. Most of us in the field of education still have hope for the children, hope for the future, hope for racial equality, and hope for world peace. That's why we do what we do and hope for changes in how resources are allocated and how programs are evaluated. The current attitudes toward educational funding in this country are based on selfishness and stinginess. It's time for all of us (the 99% anyway)to be generous to other people's children and quit worrying about leaving wealth to our own children, who have learned to be self-supporting and contribute to their communities in a positive way.
E. Nowak
Chicagoland, IL November 6, 2011
I'm nauseated at the sub-text of the comments here. A lot of the comments seem to be implying that white kids are smart and rich, black kids are poor and stupid. And therefore, white kids shouldn't have to mix with black kids.
I'm lost here. Because I know a lot of dumb white rich kids. And I know a lot of smart poor black kids. The problem is, a lot of stupid rich white kids still get into college. But a lot of smart black kids drop out of high school. The problem certainly isn't the kids. It's the parents.
I think when Mr. Clayton said, “I don’t think we’ve improved much since the 1970s,” I would say he's right -- HE and his ilk HAVEN'T improved at all.
Gary
Virginia November 6, 2011
Can we be honest here? We know this will be the end of quality education in this county. The suburbs will be bled for a time, with nothing to staunch the wound, eventually no more blood as tax rates peak and everyone who can afford it has moved across to Mississippi or Arkansas. Quality of life in Shelby County plunges as everyone who cares about such things is now in West Memphis. The question is, why, half a century after the civil rights movement, do we know this is going to be so?
Hard Work Pays
New York City November 6, 2011
The "liberal elite" handwringing would be amusing were it not so debilitating. In response to #6, why does it have to be racism that prompts people to move? Aren't an inadequate school system and a perception the environment is unsafe adequate reason to do so? I am not white, and were I to find myself in such a situation, I would move myself, to what LK characterizes as "bunkers".
The point is that school systems are not just a function of the money thrown at them, they are a function of the parents valuing education, and then recognizing they have to discipline their children to take advantage of whatever educational opportunities a district might offer. Absent that, children will naturally choose to work less; consequently, they will learn less, and then - because of the liberal focus on equal outcomes, not equal opportunities, will demand more and more of the resources available, to the detriment of those students who actually did work, to the detriment of the parents who actually took the time to discipline their children.
The kneejerk racism complaint has done little to lift up the fortunes of black and Latino America...if you want to see a minority that does get it done right, look at the Asians and emulate them. Then, perhaps, people in Shelby County will want to move back to Memphis.
Bluefish
The uncomfortable truth is that when a population of underachievers (with significant behavior and social problems) is suddenly integrated with a population of normal achievers & overachievers (without significant behavioral or social problems prior to the integration) as one large captive audience with a structured educational curriculum, the effect is predictable: It’s beneficial for many (perhaps most) individuals in the “underachievers” group who have adequate family support given the new resources, but detrimental to most in the “normal achievers” group as more resources must focus on enforcing discipline and the constant (often futile) effort to raise the bar of the underachieving group. So, advantages accrue to the underachievers at the expense of the normal/overachievers. Along with this comes an uncomfortable cultural adaptation for all, which is more likely to be experienced as a negative cultural change for the normal/overachievers, and a positive one for the underachievers.
Lee Pefley
'Bama November 6, 2011
An absolute segregation of the races is the only way to restore
quality to American education. To waste taxpayer monies on attempting to educate the uneducable is analogous to trying to force democracy on Muslim countries.
Gary
Virginia November 6, 2011
The Times sighs with delight as it proffers this story, wanting to relive a bit of the civil rights era. However, the only outcome from this will be poorer public schools and better private ones in Shelby County.
Dennis
Minneapolis, MN November 6, 2011
It is interesting to hear white people claim that there isn't any rasicm in existence. When will people learn that there is only one race, the Human race. This is sad article on the progress of race relations.
Jim B.
Ashland, MA November 6, 2011
Show me the fathers and I'll then tell you what kind of school system it is.
Joe Cussek
Memphis, TN November 6, 2011
The selective race issues are fabricated for sensationalism. It's all about a failed school system (Memphis City) taking over a very successful system (Shelby County). People in Memphis City Schools couldn't possibly do worse than they have to date for education. The new system will be really large and likely won't be as bad as people in the County system fear. The new system will still produce a disproportionately low group of college ready students....It's about 3% for the city now & 45% for the county. The new rate will likely be around 15%....the conversation should really be about how we prepare the 85% who won't go to college or make it in college for a career other than working at Walmart, collecting unemployment or dealing drugs.
GeniusIQ179
SLO, CA November 6, 2011
I used to feel sorry for the "blacks" as a society of people who had once been enslaved and then segregated, neighborhoods red-lined by the banks, and completely ignored by their political representatives...
===
A 1960's story--
I worked with HFC and CIT making small consumer loans to those "blacks" living in Los Angeles's blighted areas...
90 days later, I was on the collections desk calling them for repayment...
60 days after that, I was in those blighted areas of Watts and Compton collecting loans and reposessing cars...
While there, I noted that streets were dirty and not repaired, yards of homes never watered and grass dead, cars all had man-made dents and scrapes...
The women were always found at home, but the men could only be found in bars or outside of bars on the sidewalks, or elsewhere that I never knew... While their children ran free, I saw babys and children who showed ugly signs of abuse, of the very worst kind...
I eventually quit the job in disgust.
===
Since then I have had a opinion that the California Welfare System is by far; the worst item in society... I do not believe that you can buy happiness with that kind of money... You can only extend the misery of those who cannot seem to help themselves, generation upon generation upon, etc...
===
During this 50+ year period I've watched the Welfare system be milked by the "blacks", while their children's schools were ignored until they desindigrated...
I've watched as crazy "black" politicians screamed and cried for their downtrodden brothers and sisters plight...
===
Through all of this, I've watched the other minorities grow from immigrants to upstanding citizens...
Now however, there is hope, I have a new son-in-law coming into my family, and he is "black" as the ace of spades... He works, sometimes two jobs, during this depression that Obama calls a recession... He is a joy to behold, and treats my daughter well...
John Scanlon
Collingswood, NJ November 6, 2011
The Shelby County school system might look to the success of the Palm Beach County system. PBC has neighborhood schools enriched by district run magnet programs to help more evenly distribute ethnic populations. Memphis might in particular look at Don Estridge High Tech Middle School in Boca Raton. That school has a several year record for educating all students in Middle School, where very many minority students fall behind academically. Palm Beach County has managed to avoid severe budgetary disruption by essentially eliminating charter schools. The PBC system, classified as an urban district with 175,000 students, has evaded the scourge of ultimately ineffective charter schools gutting the public school population and disrupting the range of abilities found in every community.
AJ
is a trusted commenter Midwest November 6, 2011
Let's call a spade a spade: a child from an impoverished background, regardless of race, will absolutely struggle in a classroom full of middle and upper class kids.
Well the problem with your claim is the word "absolutely." That's just not true. In the upper middle class midwestern suburb in which I live about 12 percent of the students come from the neighboring suburb from poor non-English speaking immigrant families. Because they are a significant minority and don't overwhelm the system, the school puts a lot of resources into helping these kids. Yes most still struggle but they graduate at a much higher rater from highschool (like 90 precent) than they would in another district. And the district works tirelessly to make find the academically talented among those kids and give them every resource you can imagine. They "scout" these kids in grade school and then: Trips to mueseums, opera, theater and movies to up their cultural literacy. Trips to Washington DC, New York and California to give them a better sense of the country. Free one on one tutoring for college enterance exams to put them on par with their wealthy classmates. A private college placement person to make sure they go to college and with a scholarship.
But it only works because of the numbers here. The huge amount of resources combined with a low number of students who tax the system.
Randolph Phillips
Shiloh, GA 31826 November 6, 2011
People who do not want to associate with each other are not forced to do so in a free society.
Busing was one of the great errors the Courts and federal government made. Instead of educational resources being used to educate all kids, schools and curriculum was hijacked primarily to enforce and implement racial integration.
This merger of Menphis and Shelby County schools--by federal court order, it appears, is merely Busing under another name. No more and no less. Adn the rsults will likely be the same as say, St. Louis, Mo.
We need to get the federal government out of classrooms, and quit borrowing money at the federal level to create a National Public education system, run by Washington bureaucrats.
Pluribus
TEXAS November 6, 2011
The primary issue here is not one of race or poor, but related to a parent's desire to have their children's education advanced conducted in an environment where parents are committed to implanting a will and faculty to learn; and where this is supported with a commitment to positive virtues and values for developing and promoting healthy behavioral attributes, including an attitude of respect. Memphis obviously lacks this discipline, and unionized teachers can only add to the milieu. Federal legislation will not resolve the root cause of the problem, which can only come about with the change in the moral behavior of the majority of the parents in Memphis community.
NikkiE
USA to Berlin November 6, 2011
@ Hardwork-- I disagree that the differences between the two school systems is purely about attitudes towards education and parental involvement. I went to suburban, predominately White schools all my life and trust me, parents (esp at the highschool level) were really not that involved or cared about their child's education outside of the actual grades. How the kids got the grades, no one really paid attention.
I think there is more at work here. For example, I am willing to bet that despite receiving less money, Shelby county spends more per head per child on education costs because they have significantly smaller number of students than the Memphis schools system. Higher student spending allows for more resources in the school and higher pay for teachers, which means newer and more equipment as well better teachers from a more competitive applicant pool. I would also be willing to venture that the parents and the local community are supplementing student spending with donations and participation in local fundraising. And with an avg income of 92,000, that is no small amount being generated. And finally, I would also wager that the kids in Shelby have a college prep curriculum, while Memphis schools probably don"t have nearly as many advance placement or college courses because somewhere the powers that be assume the students will probably not make that far.
Like I said these are guesses, but these were some of the differences that I noted between my predominately White schools and the predominately Black schools in my area. And the thing is most parents, didn't even realize how significant these differences were. They just knew some schools were better than others depending on where you lived.
fly
I hope this turns out better then what happened in PG County (MD) in the 80's when the courts instigated mass busing and closing/combining of schools. My son not only lost over a year of school, but was traumatized concerning race relations for much longer. Most of the white kids stood no chance, they entered an environment where surviving was the rule and the girls (my daughter the next year) fared much much worse then the boys. Many of the white children just surrendered to the instability/violence and in turn became very meek. It became almost a Stockholm Syndrome situation. Soon, the schools became prison-like with discipline the main goal instead of teaching, and PG police guarding the doors. It corrected itself with most of the white family's just moving, and the ones left, in semi-segregated science and tech classes. PG County soon afterward became (I am quite sure) the most black county in the entire nation (and the most segregated). I do have to say that even though most schools are back to being segregated (almost all black),
they are much better then they were in the 80's. I think all races now realize the importance of education.
moionfire
allentown, pa, usa November 6, 2011
Hopefully the merger improves the results of the mainly poor schools. I wonder how they will deal with union issues since the rich and suburban school is non-unionized. I believe that most school districts should be merged. This country has way to many school districts. Money and inequality could decrease if we had fewer as resources would be shared among the richer communities and the poor.
V. Oglette
Big mistake. Look at Mobile County Public Schools in Mobile, Alabama. Cities are dropping out like flies because of the issues faced in a way too large school district. Good luck with all that!
Thinker
There goes the property value of Shelby county residents.
Those who decry racism should just send their children to an 85% black, hispanic or free lunch school. No school age children? Thought so.
ackridgek
philadelphila November 6, 2011
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/06/mississippi.hate.crime/index.html
http://www.city-data.com/forum/mississippi/27683-racism-worries-natchez-...
These two items are the just the *tip* of the iceberg...racism is alive and well 50 years after the civil rights movements. There are certain demographics of society (the south) that are still living in the 1950s...come hell or high water...they are not trying to *integrate* with anyone...especially the others (black and brown folk).
GHWOOD
Boston November 6, 2011
Don't like the rules than leave, black or white it does not matter but if it matters to you then "leave" and segregate yourself. If you are still of the mind and belief that a persons color of skin determines intellect and success then by all means PLEASE LEAVE THE COUNTRY or live in the south because the rest of the country knows the year is 2011 and we do have a black president.
Palmer1619
Warminster, PA November 6, 2011
It's too bad that the school districts in Shelby County didn't move on this years ago. The kids and the parents of today are a great deal different than those in the 1950s. There will undoubtedly be problems, but any change always brings problems. And while Shelby County may have some problems with the same old bigotry, in the long run, this segregation has got to stop. I think this will be beneficial to all.
biwtican
michigan November 6, 2011
the key question that is never dealt with in these discussions is whether it is acceptable for the black schools to out perform the white schools. in america the answer has always been no. if the black kids do to well on the tests the call is for the test to be changed because it is to easy or somebody cheated. if america would spend more time teaching instead of concentrating on fixing the results so that the dominate racial group always ends up on top they might have a chance at creating a decent school district.
Aaron McDuffie
Hartford, CT November 6, 2011
I take issue with JasonM's (Post #2's) comment.
White flight in its truest sense is NOT "a completely rational and defensible response to the prospect of subjecting your kids to violent, ill-disciplined, academically backwards, delinquent poor students". White flight in fact, is the a reaction of whites who can't stand the 'horro' of living with minorities and sending their children to desegregated schools. What happened 30-some years ago was indeed white flight. What's happening here seems more like concerned parents caring about the future of their high-achieving school district to me.
wim
The personal, physical fear of the 1970s is now the fear of academic decline. It wasn't true then, it isn't true today.
another cup
Memphis November 6, 2011
Funny, no mention of the ineffective and overpaid superintendent of MCS.