On December 18, Managing Attorney Mark Dorosin submitted a letter to Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board regarding the upcoming 2012-2013 student reassignment plan. Parents and community advocates have expressed concerns about assignment alternatives that concentrate "at-risk" or low-income students in certain schools. Several parents have especially criticized Plan 4.1, which would fill 38% of the new Northside Elementary with "at-risk" students compared to other schools as low as 17% or 18% "at risk." Dorosin urged the board to enhance diversity at each school to improve students' education and support the entire community of Chapel Hill-Carrboro residents. Read the full letter below.
“Unless our
children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will
learn to live together.” Thurgood
Marshall
Dear
Chairperson Brownstein and Members of the Board of Education:
As you begin to discuss the various redistricting options, I urge you
to make racial and socio-economic diversity the highest priority in the
redistricting criteria under consideration. As the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board, like
its peers across the state, continues to work to improve student achievement
and close the gap between white and minority students’ test scores, it is
critical that every available resource be utilized. These resources include, in addition to
technology, books and high quality teachers, students and families. Extensive social science research
demonstrates that students learn from their peers, and that racial and socio-economic
diversity among students enhances that learning. All students, regardless of their individual
socio-economic status or race, achieve at higher levels in socio-economically
diverse schools.
Racial or socio-economic isolation is a known barrier to securing the prerequisites
to a quality education. Diversity is essential to enhance each school’s ability
to educate students for citizenship in this state, compete for good teachers
and administrators, win parental and public support, sustain high academic
expectations, and generate a climate of respect and tolerance for people of
different races, cultures and experiences. The failure to achieve diversity creates a two-tiered system of good
versus mediocre schools and erodes support for public schools overall.
There are many critical impacts on education that the school board
cannot control, including where students live, their family income, or the
opportunities a student receives outside of school. That’s why it is so important that the board
aggressively engage on the impacts it can control: where students go to school,
who they go to school with and the resources available at each school. Make no mistake, the stigma of “bad” schools
is palpable and it affects students and teachers assigned to them. Why would the board choose an assignment plan
that puts a new school behind the starting line and undercuts its abilities to
meet our stated goals?
Perhaps most distressing in the recent redistricting debate has been
the call from some for so-called “community schools.” There is no escaping the
reality that the term has an ominous pedigree and has been used to justify
racial and socio-economic segregation from the 1960s to the recent debates over
reassignment in Wake County. Whatever the motivation of residents calling for
community or neighborhood schools, these loaded terms are rooted in an
anti-diversity balkanization of school districts with regard to student
assignment and attendance areas. Moreover, the idea of “community schools” not
only ignores the continuing legacy of residential racial and socio-economic
segregation in housing opportunities, but also takes a shortsighted and narrow
view of what constitutes a community. Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County is our community. Northside, Seawell, Estes Hills, Carrboro,
Morris Grove, Frank Porter Graham, Rashkis, McDougle, Mary Scroggs, Ephesus,
and Glenwood are all community schools.
Sincerely,
Mark Dorosin
Posted by Mark Dorosin on Wed. December 19, 2012 8:11 AM
Categories: Community Inclusion, Education, Fair Housing, Orange County, Race Discrimination, Segregation