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The closer it gets, the less good it looks

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published October 9, 2007

Here is how things used to work in our society:

Black people and white people went to separate schools.

Here is how things are likely to work again in the near future, at least in Pinellas County:

Black people and white people quite often will be going to separate schools.

We're talking about resegregating the public schools, 53 years after the U.S. Supreme Court called it unconstitutional.

If there's a difference this time around - and I'm not sure that there is - it's that this modern segregation will be conducted under the label of "close to home" schooling.

"Close to home" is the current preferred term for what used to be called "neighborhood" schools.

And since white people and black people do not always live in an integrated fashion, school attendance based on residential patterns will be segregated as well.

You might ask:

"So what? This is exactly what a lot of people have been telling the School Board they wanted for years now.

"A lot of white parents want local schools. A lot of black parents want them, too."

And that's true. But that doesn't automatically mean they support resegregation. And it doesn't mean there's a single "black community" with a single opinion, either.

This whole thing started in 1998, when the School Board decided to seek an end to court-ordered busing. For the past five years, Pinellas has operated under "school choice." But now, Pinellas is close to taking the final step. And now that it's imminent, more people are objecting.

For all the criticisms that were directed at school choice when it came about, some families now say they like their current school just fine.

Should they be forced to move again just for the sake of having a close-to-home school? Should they be grandfathered into the new system? If so, how many of them should keep getting public transportation?

And what happens when their little brother or sister comes along? The new kid won't get the same choice - in fact, there's even talk of a "reverse sibling" policy, forcing the older kid to revert to the close-to-home school.

And on top of all that, a growing number of parents and community leaders are finally voicing concern about the resegregation issue.

I am sorry to pile on the School Board in its time of crisis, but the current mess is largely the board's fault.

The board failed to make school choice work. And choice was what was going to make this final step possible. Choice was supposed to create a wide-open, vibrant school system in which enough parents would choose schools for reasons other than location.

So, here is what the School Board has to pull off in the next few weeks:

It has to satisfy the parents who want local schools.

It has to satisfy the parents who don't.

Yet it somehow ought to produce a system that resists the effects of resegregation.

Otherwise, one day, a judge is going to remind us of what the Supreme Court said back in 1954:

Separate is unequal.

* * *

If it's Tuesday, it's chat day on TroxBlog. From noon to 1 p.m. today I'll be there live, responding to questions and comments on current events.

[Last modified October 9, 2007, 08:54:32]