Thread: Omaha school district to split along racial lines

I guess we'll have to revisit separate but equal yet again.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/04....ap/index.html


Omaha school district to split along racial lines

Friday, April 14, 2006; Posted: 11:06 a.m. EDT (15:06 GMT)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- In a move decried by some as state-sponsored segregation, the Legislature voted Thursday to divide the Omaha school system into three districts -- one mostly black, one predominantly white and one largely Hispanic.

Supporters said the plan would give minorities control over their own school board and ensure that their children are not shortchanged in favor of white youngsters.

Republican Gov. Dave Heineman signed the measure into law.

Omaha Sen. Pat Bourne decried the bill, saying, "We will go down in history as one of the first states in 20 years to set race relations back."

"History will not, and should not, judge us kindly," said Sen. Gwen Howard of Omaha.

Attorney General Jon Bruning sent a letter to one of the measure's opponents saying that the bill could be in violation of the Constitution's equal-protection clause and that lawsuits almost certainly will be filed.

But its backers said that at the very least, its passage will force policymakers to negotiate seriously about the future of schools in the Omaha area.

The breakup would not occur until July 2008, leaving time for lawmakers to come up with another idea.

"There is no intent to create segregation," said Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, the Legislature's only black senator and a longtime critic of the school system.

He argued that the district is already segregated, because it no longer buses students for integration and instead requires them to attend their neighborhood school.

Chambers said the schools attended largely by minorities lack the resources and quality teachers provided others in the district. He said the black students he represents in north Omaha would receive a better education if they had more control over their district.

Coming from Chambers, the argument was especially persuasive to the rest of the Legislature, which voted three times this week in favor of the bill before it won final passage on the last day of the session.

Omaha Public Schools Superintendent John Mackiel said the law is unconstitutional and will not stand.

"There simply has never been an anti-city school victory anywhere in this nation," Mackiel said. "This law will be no exception."

The 45,000-student Omaha school system is 46 percent white, 31 percent black, 20 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent Asian or American Indian.

Boundaries for the newly created districts would be drawn using current high school attendance areas. That would result in four possible scenarios; in every scenario, two districts would end up with a majority of students who are racial minorities.

You know, this business of bussing people all over hell's half acre to go to school was a bad idea 40 years ago and it is still a bad idea today. I've seen PBS shows where even the people who the integration laws were insituted to accomodate complained that they were taken away from their friends and sent to schools an hour or more away. It was just plain stupid all the way around.

I agree that kids and people in general should be able to go wherever they want to go without fear of discrimination for the color of their skin or their religious beliefs but that doesn't mean they should be forced to do it if they don't want to. Looking back, I feel that the liberal "experiment" of risking kids' lives on school busses every day to integrate the schools was a mistake.

I know that there are at least fifteen schools within WALKING distance of my house even though many of the kids go to school on a bus anyway. I guess if a parent asks for the kid to go to a different school they generally arrange it but the kids go to the closest school to where they live for the most part.

I'm not sure how the schools are laid out in Omaha but I think that the kids should go to school nearest where they live for safety reasons if nothing else. It only stands to reason that the illegals in cities where they aren't the overall majority (YET) will congregate among their own kind because that is where they choose to live.

People talk about this country being a nation of immigrants and that is true. And even in the 1950's there were pockets of people who came from other countries who congregated in specific areas in order to live near people whose values they were most comfortable with-- not because they were forced to be there or herded and penned in like sheep. Why would hispanic immigrants in Omaha, legal or illegal, do differentely today?

It will be interesting to observe how the media "spins" this story.

Omaha Public Schools (OPS) wanted to absorb 3 adjacent school districts to enlarge OPS and eliminate those 3 districts as separate entities.

The reasons for doing this are debated.

Some point to the "No Child Left Behind" federal statute that can penalize districts that do not meet federal standards. The test scores for OPS ARE lower, even though the spending per student is higher than the 3 outlaying districts.

Well, the influx of no to little English-speaking students makes a difference!!!! So many legal and illegal immigrant kids have flooded OPS that Mexico sent a semi-trailer full of Spanish language books to OPS a couple years ago.

OPS also encompasses the majority of the areas where poor folks and minorities live. Lambast me if you will but, my observations as a teacher backed by a multitude of studies indicates that the urban Black culture TENDS to not be a culture where the pursuit of education is a high priority. And, from my observations, the working poor subculture of any color also tends to have kids that don't do as well in school.

The 3 outlaying districts draw mainly from lower middle-class whites up to and including the upper middle and wealthy white folks. My personal observations in the 3 outlaying district's classrooms is that education is promoted in the home and the students spend much more time in school actually learning vibe engaging in disruptive behavior that inhibits the learning process.

One school I regulary spend time at sends over 90% of its graduates to college. Disruptions of even the most minor type are very rare.

Then, go to the school in the Black or Hispanic part of town. The attitudes are much different. Disruptions are the norm. Thug mentality is popular. But, try to enforce discipline, try to inculcate a desire for learning..... well.... do some research if you really care. The kids have the power and their parents mainly support the kids, no matter how badly they behave.

Okay, the problems are society-wide..... and don't blame the typical classroom teacher.

The schools are segregated mainly due to economics. Rents and house prices are much less in the Black north Omaha and Hispanic south Omaha. Then there is the "birds of a feather flock together" syndrome. Despite the much higher crime rates in those two parts of town many of the residents proclaim a desire to stay, to be around that which is familiar, comfortable.

Currently, Nebraska law allows students to attend any school they want IF there is room for the kid; there generally is room for those kids. But, do you think there is a HUGE demand for the kids in the Black and Hispanic areas to go to "whitey's" schools in the suburbs? NO!!!!! They will be away from what is familiar, comfortable. And, they would be immersed within kids who are in school to learn!!!!!!

Even if the OPS is separated into three entities the students will be allowed to attand a school in another part of town.... even the school in the wealthiest area.

All the so-called segregation is self-imposed.

Geeee, this issue is so complicated and involving so many aspects of society today it is difficult to write about!!!!!!

Let's jump to this.

We want diversity!!!! Segregation is bad!!!! Even if it is self-imposed!!!!

Fine. Send in the Army. At bayonette point force people to live where the government tells you to live. Shop where you are ordered to. Go to the school you are ordered to. You will have no friends other than those you are ordered to have. There.... diversity.

Okay, less draconian measures. Bus kids so that there are equal percentages of ethnicity/race in every school. Sigh..... those of us old enough to remember the problems of forced bussing back in the 60s and 70s tremble with disgust at doing that agian.

As a so-called free American do I not have the RIGHT to associate with who I want? Sure, I can't deny others their rights but I can stay away from that I do not like. I dislike the gangsta rap thug culture, its language, its attitudes. There are some that believe they can take my kid and immerse it within that culture for diversity's sake. BS!!!!!!!!!

As I said, a complicated scenario. But, the knee-jerk rhetoric and the trampling upon individual rights of free association may occur again.

Remember, a buereaucrat started this mess by wanting to absorb other school districts. The OPS superintendent draws a HUGE salary and apparently is in lust with power. The bloke has sucked at the taxpayer trough for years and will receive a HUGE pension compared to the average worker. His motives for absorbing other districts are questionable.

The race and divercity cards are being played in order to affect emotions rather than logic.

The changes enacted to OPS affect NOTHING substantial. There will be 2 new beauracracies but the schools will be in the same place, the kids will be going to the same schools, they will still have the option to attend a different school..... no real changes except a diminishing of the OPS superintendent's power and 2 new superintendents for the 2 new districts.

Smoke and mirrors. Power grabs. Plenty of knee-jerk rhetoric that dissipates when logical thinking is applied.

Perhaps that's the main problem. I believe most Americans stumble through life drawing upon the emotive part of their brains vice the logical portion.

In the meantime, I will sit back within one of the districts that was intended to be absorbed and shake my head in wonderment at all the idiocy and in disgust at the overpaid power-hungry bureaucrats using all their emotions vice intellect to whine about their, not the student's, losses.