Thread: 'White flight' in Boulder

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'White flight' in Boulder
Schools becoming segregated as many select other options

By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News
December 19, 2005

BOULDER - The neighborhood around Columbine Elementary School is 87 percent Anglo. But enrollment numbers indicate that many neighborhood kids are going elsewhere. This year, the school in northeast Boulder is 82 percent Hispanic.

"Most of the parents who are involved in this would not say they were (engaged in) 'white flight' - they were simply choosing options that were better for their children," says Julie Phillips, who stepped down in November as Boulder school board president.

But Richard Garcia, a member of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education who put six children through Boulder schools, is more blunt:

"My feeling is the problem is racism," Garcia says. "I think people are leaving Columbine because they don't like to be with brown kids. I know I'm going to get killed because I said that, but I'm going to call it as I see it."

'Tweaking with choice'

Under Colorado law, parents have wide latitude in selecting among schools within a district, or even in other districts, to enroll their children.

In Boulder, Anglo parents are choosing schools other than Columbine.

Similar patterns are emerging in south Boulder and Lafayette, which is part of the Boulder district. The district's two bilingual schools are lopsidedly Hispanic.

"A lot of the flight on the surface is because of the programs that parents want their kids to go to. But underneath at some schools, when a percentage of minority kids or poor kids gets to a certain level, people have not wanted to put their children (there)," says Superintendent George Garcia, who is not related to Richard Garcia.

Garcia says the district can't do anything about the state's open enrollment law, but a citizen task force in June suggested several strategies to disperse the district's students more equitably.

That could include enrollment targets for minorities and economically disadvantaged students at Boulder schools. The targets would be achieved through enrollment caps and preferences.

For example, students eligible for free and reduced-cost lunch, a main measure of poverty, would be given preference at schools with mostly middle- or upper-income students.

Students from low-income families would be provided transportation so they can take advantage of open enrollment. Families now must provide their own transportation when enrolling outside their neighborhood school.

The board of education will discuss those ideas in January, Garcia says.

The issue could be explosive, says school board President Helayne Jones.

"We take it seriously and want to do something about it. We also recognize that any time you try to touch these issues it can be politically sensitive," Jones says.

"Any time you start tweaking with choice - which I think a lot of parents hold very dear and feel it's their right - any time you try to limit that, you can ruffle a lot of feathers," she adds.

School segregation has been a subject of discussion - and embarrassment - for the past five years in Boulder, a community that considers itself the most progressive in the state.

"For a liberal community, we aren't looking so liberal in the white flight we've experienced from some schools in the last 10 years," says Phillips, who was barred by term limits from seeking a third term on the school board.

Scores and segregation


The increasing segregation of Boulder schools was highlighted in a 2000 study by University of Colorado education school professors Kenneth Howe and Margaret Eisenhart.

"Whites are disproportionately requesting open enrollment in schools with high test scores; Latinos are disproportionately requesting open enrollment in bilingual schools," Howe and Eisenhart wrote.

Still unclear is whether attendance patterns are a factor in the low test scores of Hispanic students. Boulder has the widest gap in the metro area between scores of Anglo and Hispanic students on state achievement tests.

Evidence of a link between test scores and ethnic segregation is inconclusive, Howe says.

"That's where we are right now. We don't really know," he says.

But numerous studies over the past 40 years have shown a strong correlation between low test scores and concentrations of economically disadvantaged students in a school, Howe says.

At Columbine, Hispanic kids and poor kids are mostly the same. Hispanics were 82.9 percent of the students in 2004-05, while 83.2 percent of the school's students were eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch.

Columbine received a rating of low - one step above unsatisfactory - on state school report cards issued Dec. 6. Three nearby, mostly Anglo, schools were rated average, high and excellent.

Poverty and ethnicity shouldn't make a difference in whether students learn, says Richard Garcia, who is a former social studies teacher and principal.

"Any school worth its salt, with good teachers and good principals and good attitudes, can get these kids to achieve well," he says.

Jared Polis, a member of the Colorado Board of Education and a Boulder native, says the school district should stop blaming open enrollment for school segregation and do more to attract Anglo families back to schools like Columbine.

"Merely claiming racism can be an excuse not to take action, and sometimes that's what it becomes," Polis says.

"I think that parents of all colors care most about the quality of the school and achievement," Polis says. "If there's a school where their kids are getting a good education, and the teachers are good and the program is good and their child is happy, I don't think they care what color the child that sits next to them is."

George Garcia said the district is trying to provide incentives to attract Anglo students to schools that are disproportionately Hispanic.

Pre-engineering and International Baccalaureate programs are slated for Centaurus High School, between Louisville and Lafayette, which has been trending Hispanic in recent years.

"So we've been working on it," the superintendent says.

As for Columbine, Principal Lynn Widger says Anglo parents shun the school because they believe their children will be more challenged elsewhere.

"I think it's a concern around that, vs. racism," Widger says.

But, she says, Anglo parents would find a rich curriculum for their children at Columbine and teachers who are skilled at tailoring lessons to the needs of individual children.

"I don't want them to come here necessarily because they would serve our Latino children," Widger says of Anglo kids. "I want them to come here because it would be a good environment for them.

"And, yes, they would learn about diversity, as well as our children here would have more intercultural interaction."

Segregation will continue to be a hot topic.

Howe is conducting further research on minority children in integrated and segregated schools in Boulder. The Piton Foundation is funding another such study in Denver.

CU will host a conference on the subject in January.

Enrollment patterns

Figures are for the current school year:*

• North Boulder

School Anglo Hispanic

Columbine 13.5 82.0
Crest View 69.9 17.4
Foothill 90.5 3.3
Whittier 68.3 17.2

• South Boulder

School Anglo Hispanic

Creekside 52.4 29.7
Bear Creek 86.2 1.7
Mesa 93.7 1.9

• Middle schools in Boulder

School Anglo Hispanic

Casey 42.9 47.8
Centennial 83.5 11.1
Manhattan 71.3 18.5
Southern Hills 87.7 3.8

• Lafayette

School Anglo Hispanic

Sanchez 30.4 63.9
Lafayette 70.5 20.7

• Bilingual schools

School Anglo Hispanic

Pioneer 36.9 59.4
University Hill 27.0 69.7

* Blacks, Asians and American Indians omitted

Source: Boulder Valley School District, 2005



morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5209

White Flight? Hispanics are white.

This is LEGAL FLIGHT to get away from illegal aliens who aren't supposed to be here in our midst; the poverty they bring; the culture, customs, and all the other illegal things illegals do once they get into the United States.

Maybe it's LANGUAGE FLIGHT to get away from Spanish Speakers who aren't supposed to be here in our midst. Maybe they want their children to attend an English Speaking School so they know what's going on and learn and have friends they can speak with.

Maybe it's BATHTUB CHEESE FLIGHT to get away from vendors selling bad cheese on the street that their kids might buy and die.

Maybe it's HOT LATINO FLIGHT to get away from Latino's who think their "HOT". Maybe parents don't want their children especially the girls around those "HOT LATINOS"....VA VA VA VOOM...BOOM....BUN IN THE OVEN, eh?

Maybe it's FOREIGN FLIGHT to get away from foreigners because they want to raise their families with Americans. What a novel idea spurting up in America??

Maybe it's DIRTY DIAPER FLIGHT to get away from neighborhoods where for some inexplicable reason they think it is appropriate to throw dirty diapers out the window onto your yard.

It can be a variety of FLIGHT ISSUES, but NONE OF THEM ARE WHITE FLIGHT because MOST HISPANICS ARE CAUCASIANS and that means WHITE.

and what was that about having spots at better schools for those on free or reduced lunches? isn't that discriminating against kids who can afford lunch? their ideas are just ridiculous. I do not like the idea of this forced desegregation.

Right on!! Our government neither Executive, Legislative or Judicial can force us to associate with foreign nationals that we do not want here; that we can not sustain as a nation; that are stealing our jobs; hurting our people; ruining our nation; and worryin US to death.

Now, if George Bush wants to share a house and life with some illegal Latinos, Hispanics, Mexicans, Russians, Chinese, Afghans...then he is free to do so in whatever other country would allow him to do that.

The USA is not such a country; never was; isn't now; and never will be.

This is a temporary condition that the American People are going to have resolve head on; face to face; in no uncertain terms.

For Americans to feel that they need to leave their neighborhoods and move out of an area that they were otherwise happy with until the failure of this President and two before him to enforce our laws and maintain our peace, comfort and harmony within our own borders, the place we call Home...is a total outrage.

As God is my Witness, this man who has deliberately fouled our nation and our people will be held accountable for the damage he has done to the American People while President of the United States. His day of reckoning is near.

He will leave Washington penniless, in disgrace and under indictment before his term is over.

Mark my Words.

"Any school worth its salt, with good teachers and good principals and good attitudes, can get these kids to achieve well," he says.

Columbine received a rating of low - one step above unsatisfactory - on state school report cards issued Dec. 6. Three nearby, mostly Anglo, schools were rated average, high and excellent.

Evidentally Columbine isn't "worth its salt". No wonder parents are taking their children outside this school district.

Remember Columbine? Isn't this the school where the shooting was? When they showed the pictures of the students at that school, back then, it was predominantly Anglo student body. How many years ago was that?

What a shift in such a short period of time.

I do applaud Richard Garcia for being more frank than most. The superintendant of Greely School said her district had trouble meeting State standards because of "english language learners." I would have more respect for them if they said "We want to subsidize Developers in our area so we are going use state funds to provide support services including education to illegal ailens." At least then we could begin to intellengently negotiate the problem. That airhead in Greely is beaten before she begins.

Those of you in the Greely area have a chance this tuesday night to attend a city council meeting to discuss putting an ICE office near Greely.
1. would help law enforcement reduce the illegal labor population
2. The Federal jobs this would bring would be good for the local economy.
3. Would establish a satalite around which Greely could big for other Federal agencies and offices.

Be there.

Exactly Judy-
also good point - the race card again- Its about a nation coming to another nation illegally
and wanting to protect daughters is very valid. when my daughter was in high school- gang banger guys would walk up , grab girls from behind and bend them over....
well one did this to my daughter, who is trained in marital arts and wrestling( she looked normal and pretty though)
anyway she punched him in the stomach and threw him down the stairs-
the Football coach was cheering her on----needless to say the sexual harrassment of girls in school is b-a-d ... and my daughter learned to really hate mexican males and the way they treat women..
if they didnt have illegals here the legal parents wouldnt have to leave-


and the diaper in the yard thing- like hello- in this 40 unit biulding- which was rented out to a lot of illegals-
the latino family would throw the sh----ty diaper -open - not even wrapped up - in the dumpster-

ps - does anyone call or email the writers of these articles? to comment? I just wondered....

Yes we have Thelma. And then we post the letter or email we sent on ALIPAC for everyone to see! Be sure to delete your email informaton if you do not want this posted on the open forum and you can delete your name as well since you have your forum name with the post.