

Segregation Now – separate and unequal education is coming back - kelukelugames
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/04/segregation-now/359813/
&gt;Segregation Now ...
Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, the schools in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, show how separate and unequal education is coming back<p>was trying to fit in the whole subtitle.
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dkarapetyan
Separate and unequal has been the rule for a while now. Honors, AP, electives,
etc. It's even more fundamental than race.

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russellsprouts
However, these programs all happen within the same school. The trouble in the
article is due to a single school with a wide range of options being split
into several smaller schools, and the predominantly black school getting worse
funding.

Programs such as Honors, AP, electives, etc., are the cheapest way for any
student -- regardless of socio-economic background -- to receive high-quality
education. Without those programs offered at public schools, I suspect that
even more upper-middle class families would transfer to private schools or
schools in the suburbs.

Consider sports electives: were they not offered at public schools, the only
option would be club programs, often costing thousands per year. At a public
school, somewhere around $50 is all that's needed for a year's worth of
participation, with coaching that can be comparable to exclusive club teams,
and scholarships available for even that amount.

edit: Also, because AP programs are standardized across the country, a student
that passes AP Statistics at any school will have the same chance of getting
college credit at any school that offers it. This levels the playing field a
lot.

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cwisecarver
Why not just add a separate tax for private schools that drives money directly
into public schools. They will increase their tuition accordingly, because
profit, and more affluent families will think twice about public schools. The
rich would still be able to afford private schools and would help out funding
public schools.

I'm all for the live and let live philosophy but education and healthcare are
things that make a better society. Mostly I just want there to be less stupid
people. That would, selfishly, make my life better.

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jgalt212
Bad education systems for poor people has a been a problem since the beginning
of time. However, given the times we live in now, one can more easily take
matters into their own hands and take corrective action.

e.g. if you have a bum math teacher, just log onto youtube and watch some Khan
Academy lectures.

of course, the Internet is not a panacea, but it can narrow the education gap
much more effectively than most anything other method. As cited, the internet
is much better at helping rectify bad or lax teaching methods than creating a
safe learning environment. i.e. It can't do much about bullies stealing your
lunch money, or having to dodge stray bullets on the walk to school.

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QuantumChaos
The rich White/Jewish liberals who write these articles, and enforce these
laws, could never stomach 1/10'th of the integration they force on poor and
middle class Whites.

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kelukelugames
I thought about this long and hard because I really don't want it to be true.
A lot of states fund prized "math and science" and magnate high schools, and
those usually try to represent the demographics of the state. Then I looked up
one of the most famous of such high schools and saw the black student
population is less than 2%.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_fo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_for_Science_and_Technology#Student_diversity)

~~~
lutusp
> A lot of states fund prized "math and science" and magnate [sic] high
> schools

Magnate : a person of rank, power, influence, or distinction often in a
specified area

Magnet : a piece of material (such as iron or steel) that is able to attract
certain metals

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heygrady
Hopefully we have a broader debate about these things as a country. While many
of the overtly racist laws have been gone since the 60's, racist local
policies continue. We should take the chance to look past racism and see the
classism evident in Tuscaloosa. Rich people shouldn't segregate themselves
from the poor people in their communities any more than white people should
segregate themselves from black people. We're all better off when we help each
other.

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guylhem
"Rich people shouldn't segregate themselves from the poor people in their
communities"

Says who? On which authority?

What if poor people want to segregate themselves?

Live and let live. Individual freedom is more important than society
considerations

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heygrady
Me. But with no authority. My individual opportunities are far greater if I'm
part of a society that ensures equal opportunity for all. Much like how having
a large population of immunized individuals far outweighs an individuals
rights to not receive immunizations, living in a population where no one is
allowed to attend an inferior school improves my own life opportunity.
Educated people live longer, healthier and more peaceful and productive lives
-- I would personally benefit in a scenario where everyone in my community was
educated fairly.

There is no way that poor people demand to live in slums. The self-segragation
idea is insulting and couldn't be supported by even an uninformed hypothesis.

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tomjen3
You end up in, essentially, an philosophical debate over what issues are most
important - don't go there. Such debates cannot be resolved (in the same way
that the halting problem cannot be resolved) because they rest on fundamental
disagrements about axioms of morality.

~~~
heygrady
You're saying that the issue of "who's segregating from whom?" is unsolvable?
Probably. It's also irrelevant.

Looking purely at the effects of segregation should answer if it's a good
idea. For an individual it's possible to benefit from segregation but as a
group we're worse-off. Arbitrarily picking out second-class citizens and
lowering their opportunities is a short-sighted idea even if in the near term
that means that more resources can be used to advance your own interests. It
doesn't matter if people are _choosing_ to be disenfranchised, it matters that
we're all hurt by it -- suicide is roundly discouraged for the same reasons.

