Is Connecticut’s Racial Imbalance Law Bad? (Greenwich, Fairfield: neighborhood, middle schools)
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Some education experts think that the state’s racial imbalance is actually bad. I have to agree.
The law says that each school must fall within 25 percentage points of the districts overall racial makeup. It does not matter if the school performs well or not. But as experts have now pointed out, the law unfairly impacts minorities by forcing towns to send minority students to other schools outside their neighborhood.
At the forefront of this issue is Fairfield’s McKinley School which serves the towns working class Tunxis Hill neighborhood. Nearly 57% of the students in the school are minorities which is well over the 25% above the district rate. The issue has been of concern for nearly two decades and the town has tried multiple ways to reduce that number including a voluntary program to allow minority students to attend other schools in the district and allow white students to attend the school if wanted. It has not been successful.
The thing that the law does not consider though is the performance of the school. Despite having a high percentage of students where English is not their first language, the school performs above the state average on standardized tests.
I have family that goes to the school and they love it. The family member is a teacher and believes the quality of education their children are getting there is very high.
What is angering many parents at the school is that the state education officials have met with the superintendent and told him that the imbalance must be fixed. It’s been 16 years that the state has been watching McKinley. According to my family member none of the parents with students in the school want anything changed.
So what do you think? Is racial balance across a district that important to disrupt students and ship them across town to a less diverse schools? Should the law be revised? Jay
The irony was the town tore down the original school to fix a mold issue that probably could have been remedied for far less money. Building a new school in a town that at the time had only one other new elementary school. Burr. So knowing they had an issue with racial imbalance they built a school so nice, no family would want their kids to go anywhere else!
Recall one remedy was to offer free pre school at Burr, if you committed to send your kids to Burr till grade 6. This was only offered to Mckinley kids. Believe plenty took advantage of this then reneged when kindergarten started!
Rather than making a blanket rule, there should be a non-judicial mechanism for people in a town to challenge districting and resource allocation if they think the town is dividing things up unfairly. I saw first hand what happens to schools when you do too much bussing. Schools lose their community feel and parent/community engagement is greatly reduced. If McKinley parents are happy with the school and the community it's isn't making the push, it should be left along. If a district is intentionally gerrymandering districts or making unequal distribution of resources for racial or social-economic reasons, there should be way to take that to state arbitration and let it get solved on a case by case basis. They can look at budget, class size, etc.
Why is one of the bluest most progressive states in the entire world still going backwards on some things?
Hey Lamont - its 2023 guy! wake up!
CT's transportation future is at a serious crossroads and they still want to do 1970s bussing to pollute the air more. They won't let EV companies sell in state even though Lamont and the legislators are all of a sudden climate change activists who jam it down your throat every 5 seconds ( at this point who doesn't know it's a 113 today in Phoenix). They flat out refuse to add a lane on 95 and the Merritt. That could be fixed in 5 minutes like they do in Dubai and Florida.
Lamont and the legislators are more worried about telling parents there are no more "boys" and "girls" then what parents actually want and think what's best for their kids.
Busing kids all over town to average out racial imbalances is not the answer.
Correct. We saw that back in the '70s when Boston tried busing kids from Southie to Roxbury and vice versa. It was a colossal failure. Do we ever learn? Not THIS retarded state.
Correct. We saw that back in the '70s when Boston tried busing kids from Southie to Roxbury and vice versa. It was a colossal failure. Do we ever learn? Not THIS retarded state.
Forget about the 70s. Bussing in Boston is still a massive issue and a giant problem. Don’t get me started on that rant.
Correct. We saw that back in the '70s when Boston tried busing kids from Southie to Roxbury and vice versa. It was a colossal failure. Do we ever learn? Not THIS retarded state.
I am not in favor of the Ct handling of this in Fairfield, but Boston is a bad example. There is a natural reason this city believed the Stuart murder hoax, and it's not a pretty reason. While I was not a fan of busing, in the 70s the anti busing crowd's most vocal voices.
So, while I am not a fan of what the OP described, the last city I would want us to imitate on this issue would be Boston.
I would hope Ct residents can respectfully disagree with policies, unlike New England's largest city on this issue.
Last edited by JayCT; 08-01-2023 at 01:18 PM..
Reason: Removed off topic flame
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