If you want to know what has consumed far more of my time and attention over the past several days than 18yo’s, poor porn purveyors, lame quizes, and future travel plans combined, check out this piece I helped put together on school desegregation and the San Francisco Unified School District
I have to view this is just another unfortunate symptom of our decentralized education system, and our general cultural deemphasis on education. If there was a national education system that held every school to standards of quality (and actually funded it like Bush isn’t), then parents would have less to be concerned about. Okay, so your kid’s school will be in the black part of town, but the instructors and curriculum will be the same as they are in the suburbs.
I can’t really blame the parents for behaving the way they do. No matter how liberal-minded one might be, you can’t ask a parent to take chances with their child’s safety and future. Schools in minority neighborhoods are considered a threat to safety and future because they’re seen as so “different”. Vicious cycle, ne?