Keep heat on School Board

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published October 18, 2007

Most political observers think the palpable anger over a new choice assignment plan led to the election of a new Pinellas School Board majority in 2002 and the subsequent departure of a superintendent. But today's board members are staring at the long-awaited overhaul of choice as though it has no constituency. They're wrong, and the parents who fought against pointless busing need to speak up.

The new plan is a direct response to the angry reactions of parents over the past four years - to those who were frustrated their children couldn't go to the school down the street, who got none of their choices and ended up miles away, who missed the deadline and had no choice at all, who couldn't believe that high schools were forced to begin at 7:05 a.m. to accommodate more busing.

The community task force that was formed in response to the complaints commissioned a survey that found overwhelming parental support for reconnecting schools to their neighborhoods. Those are the parents who need to speak up now, lest this wobbly School Board do nothing at all. Which do they prefer - moving to the new assignment proposal or staying with the current choice plan?

The board has emerged from three public hearings in which parents argued mainly for the status quo, leaving some board members running in circles. At a workshop last week, the board did make some changes: agreeing to formally pledge extra financial support to schools with high numbers of low-performing students, expanding the "grandfathering" provisions, and allowing some black students to attend magnet schools in their own neighborhoods.

More ominously, though, board members now appear unable to agree on when and even whether to vote on the new plan. At their workshop debate, they were held captive by two members, Mary Brown and Linda Lerner, who once argued against the current choice plan.

Brown won election in 2002 after a campaign fueled by her vigorous questioning of choice and whether it would reduce integration. Said the teachers' union president then: "Her stand on choice was very popular with the committee. She had grave concerns, as we have had." Lerner, who is now calling for further delay saying she lacks sufficient information, said the same thing six years ago about choice.

One unfortunate turn in the debate is the extent to which Brown and her husband, NAACP St. Petersburg chapter president Norman Brown, have personalized it. Mr. Brown condemned superintendent Clayton Wilcox as "weak" and questioned his commitment to reducing the achievement gap. That's unfair, particularly given the initiatives Wilcox already has undertaken, including creation of a "Success Zone" that is directing significant resources toward 20 schools with large minority populations.

Mrs. Brown has been similarly careless with her words, at times depicting those who support the new plan as embracing resegregation. She knows better. The fact is that this fall, in the first year of choice without court-ordered ratios, five elementary schools in St. Petersburg report kindergarten classes that are between 65 and 79 percent black. Those changes are alarming and have nothing to do with the new plan.

The issue of race cannot be ignored in the development of this assignment plan, and the Browns are right that the district should do everything it can to maintain integration. But there are no simple answers. The U.S. Supreme Court has severely limited the district's options, and the choice plan itself is already leading to less integration. More pointedly, the January survey found that 82 percent of black parents and 89 percent of white parents in Pinellas want their children to go to elementary schools close to home "even if it means students of different races may not attend that school."

These are difficult choices, no doubt, but the new plan can rebuild community ties and redirect money from buses to classrooms. Board members who think change is unnecessary are ignoring the political firestorm that got them here.

[Last modified October 17, 2007, 21:42:27]