Fighting Education Shock Therapy

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/172235/fighting-education-shock-therapy

The watchword of austerity, “there is no alternative,” connotes painful cuts and layoffs adopted by fiscally shot local governments. In practice, though, this is a contradiction in terms: the politics of austerity are also a politics of imaginative restructuring, in which fiscal crisis is a cover for what Clintonites called “reinventing government” or, as partisans of Naomi Klein might prefer, “shock therapy.”

The lie is starkest in the realm of education policy, where the Obama administration prescribes a slate of options for impoverished communities receiving federal School Improvement Grants. These range from “turnarounds,” which replace the principal and at least half of school staff, to charterization or outright closure.

The catch with turnarounds and closings? Urban schools affected by them house more students of color than those left alone. As such, a growing national movement argues, the implementation of these policies systematically violates Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race-based discrimination in federally funded programs.

In a coordinated effort, Title VI complaints have been filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) by plaintiffs from turned-over districts across the country: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, D.C., Newark, New York, and Philadelphia. Coming soon, says Jitu Brown of Chicago’s Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, are filings from Austin, Cleveland, Kansas City, New Orleans, Oakland, and Wichita. That’s 14 cities (and counting) that see evidence of discrimination in federal education mandates.

[Igel]

1. It's a vexed problem.

The entire "race-based" business.

Consider this: Most deportations are of Central Americans.

School closings disproportionately affect majority African-American schools.

It's an outrage. Both must be because of racism.


Well, consider this: The Dream Act would mostly affect Central Americans.

Title I funds disproportionately affect majority African-American schools.

Use the same reasoning and you'd have to say these were racist programs when, in fact, they're pretty much the opposite.


The deportation/Dream Act disproportionality is due to the fact that illegal immigrants are disproportionately Central American for reasons of geography. The other detail is that urban schools typically have more money than failing rural schools and are more litigious.

Failing schools are disproportionately majority African-American, so both Title I funding and school closings that affect failing schools can't help but affect mostly AA schools.

Were it otherwise there'd also be the claim that there was discrimination. When you look at these kinds of things you need to consider the pool you're drawing from.

[sulphurdunn]

2. Half of all K-12 public schools

Last edited Sat Jan 19, 2013, 12:00 AM - Edit history (1)

are Title I schools. White students comprise the largest student demographic in Title I schools (35%). The smallest is black students (27%). Hispanics are 31% and other minorities comprise the remainder. The overwhelming majority of Title 1 school closures (97%) under NCLB and RTTT have majority black and Latino student populations. The evidence suggesting that inner city, predominately minority schools are being targeted for closure and restructuring is indisputable.

As a percentage of an immigrant population, Jamaicans are deported far more often than Latinos.

[HiPointDem]

3. +1