Report: Half of black students in Maryland attend segregated schools (Baltimore: 2013, credit)

[UrbanScholar]

I found this article interesting. It essentially affirms what is already known but it begs the question why is this the case. On the surface, our country promotes diversity, equity, etc. when ethnic enclaves are the norm (in this area and other metro hubs) both in neighborhoods and in schools. The article mentions that these segregated schools are typically in areas with low performing schools but the same can be said in predominately white communities where less than 2 percent of their student populations are minority. If the problem is that public schools are overwhelmingly segregated and conversely underserved then what is the solution to aligning these schools with what we aspire to be?

Report: Half of black students in Maryland attend segregated schools - The Washington Post

More than half of Maryland’s black students attend schools where the vast majority of students are nonwhite and poor, according to a report released Thursday that documents intensifying segregation patterns in the state’s public schools over two decades.

Fifty-four percent of Maryland’s black students were enrolled in schools where at least 90 percent of students were members of racial and ethnic minorities in 2010, up from about a third in 1989.

In Prince George’s County — where white enrollment decreased from 28 percent to 4 percent during those two decades — nine of 10 black students attend a school where at least 90 percent of students are minorities. Nearly four of 10 black students go to what the Civil Rights Project report calls “apartheid schools,” where 99 percent of students are minorities.

[Fast GTO]

Only solution is busing them to other schools.

I wouldn't be against it. I think bringing inter-city poor students into higher performing and more diverse schools would be a good idea.

[Khemistry]

I can't speak for all of Maryland... but for Prince George's County, this is completely irrelevant. PGC has an overwhelmingly black population, especially the further south you go. In the Northern areas of the county, you can go to schools that have extreme diversity, and where blacks only make up 60% or less of the student body of any particular school. Some schools in Northern PGC actually have a higher Hispanic enrollment, than black enrollment!

Odds are if someone in PGC is attending a majority black school, that has nothing more to do with the fact that the area its self is predominantly black. The article stated that fact its self — there only 4% of white students enrolled in PGCPS. Where are all of these non-black student bodies supposed to come from??? The high percentage of blacks in PGC are the reason why the school systems expansive magnet schools program, was dramatically overhauled and almost dismantled back in 2005/06. The courts found that busing was no longer needed in the county, because it was now majority black. Add to that, busing is extremely expensive. PGCPS has save millions of dollars per year, without having to forcibly bus students. If they were to re-institute busing, they would just be busing mostly black kids from one black school to another black school.

Unless I've really overlooked something, I don't understand the PG County example. The same can be said for many areas in Montgomery County.

[UrbanScholar]

Originally Posted by Fast GTO

Only solution is busing them to other schools.

I wouldn't be against it. I think bringing inter-city poor students into higher performing and more diverse schools would be a good idea.

I see your point but that really hasn't been that effective. They tried that in the 70's and that was a wash. If the problem of diversity in public school is the fact that these schools are poor performing, wouldn't another option be to improve the facilities, staff (number and quality), and other resources available to the school to make them more competitive/desirable? Just a thought.

[UrbanScholar]

Originally Posted by Khemistry

I can't speak for all of Maryland... but for Prince George's County, this is completely irrelevant. PGC has an overwhelmingly black population, especially the further south you go. In the Northern areas of the county, you can go to schools that have extreme diversity, and where blacks only make up 60% or less of the student body of any particular school. Some schools in Northern PGC actually have a higher Hispanic enrollment, than black enrollment!

Odds are if someone in PGC is attending a majority black school, that has nothing more to do with the fact that the area its self is predominantly black. The article stated that fact its self — there only 4% of white students enrolled in PGCPS. Where are all of these non-black student bodies supposed to come from??? The high percentage of blacks in PGC are the reason why the school systems expansive magnet schools program, was dramatically overhauled and almost dismantled back in 2005/06. The courts found that busing was no longer needed in the county, because it was now majority black. Add to that, busing is extremely expensive. PGCPS has save millions of dollars per year, without having to forcibly bus students. If they were to re-institute busing, they would just be busing mostly black kids from one black school to another black school.

Unless I've really overlooked something, I don't understand the PG County example. The same can be said for many areas in Montgomery County.

You make some very salient points. I took issue with the fact that they used PGC when the majority of the county is black. It would have been better to use an area where the population was either more diverse or majority white and the proplem of majority minority/segregation in a public school system would be more relevant. To your point about PGC being majority black (which is obviously true). Do you think that
"segregaton" would still be the issue if PGC had one of the best school systems in the state?

[PGC Native]

I don't like The WaPo's constant misuse of the words "apartheid" and "segregated" when describing DC area schools. Segregation or apartheid were both forced conditions implemented by the government. Nobody is forced to live in PG, nobody is forced to send their kids to PG public schools. Nobody is forced to go to Baltimore City schools or live in the city of Baltimore. People tend to want to live around people like them, or ethnic enclaves. I find it sort of insulting that the article insinuates the only way black students can become high achievers is to go to school with mostly white students. Why is it so bad to live in a predominately black community and go to a predominately black school if that is their choice and they feel comfortable with that? Why not invest more on improving these communities instead of blaming this on segregation?

On the other side of that, if a black family in PG wants to move to a whiter school district like the overwhelmingly white Crofton Woods Elementary, they can do so...nobody is forcing segregation on anyone. The article suggests this isn't a choice at all. A black family living in Upper Marlboro could also afford to live in mostly white Anne Arundel County if they wanted, and some do.

[PGC Native]

Originally Posted by Fast GTO

Only solution is busing them to other schools.

I wouldn't be against it. I think bringing inter-city poor students into higher performing and more diverse schools would be a good idea.

Yeah....I guess you've been asleep since forced busing, but that didn't end well for anyone. I went to Bowie public schools when there was still busing and it brought down the quality of education for everyone. They didn't contribute to the school districts' property tax base so our schools were crumbling....we didn't even get A/C until 99-2000 in many Bowie schools. The schools were way overcrowded, and the bused in kids from Capitol Heights and Bladensburg kept to themselves anyway. The white enrollment dropped so the busing stopped in 2001 I believe in PG. It was a failed sociological experiment, hence why it doesn't exist anymore.

[Fast GTO]

^So clearly it isn't the teachers?

[North Beach Person]

The Prince George's Magnet program was started in the early/mid 1980's as a way to satisfy a Federal District Court order that no school would be more than 80% minority (at that time that meant Black) nor less than 20% minority.

What that meant was that specified magnet programs like Performing Arts were established at Suitland High School to attract White students. It also created what were called Continuity Magnets at Frederick Douglass, Gwynn Park, Bowie and Laurel High Schools to attract Black students since those four schools were overwhelmingly (70%+) White at that time. What happened was that Black students many times would not be admitted to the magnets at the mostly Black schools because they would screw up the numbers. Many Black parents sent their kids to the Continuity schools because they were perceived to be (and were) safer and better than the home schools like Potomac, Crossland, Bladensburg, Central, etc.

As we went through the 90's the pool of White students grew smaller. That was not necessarily due to White Flight but to the simple fact that the families aged out. During that time the almost totally White sub-division of Marlton became majority Black, as an example. That's why Prince George's students sit in "segregated" classrooms.

Let's look at Charles County the next, if it isn't already, majority/minority County in the State. The school system is already majority/minority. That is a result over the last decade of Black Flight form Prince George's and to a lesser extent the District. Are those students in "segregated" classrooms because of law or housing patterns and migration?

[PGC Native]

Originally Posted by Fast GTO

^So clearly it isn't the teachers?

I will give the teachers I had growing up a lot of credit, they worked really hard with the limited resources they had....art on a cart, pretend music classes, gym out of cafeterias, improvsing their curricumlum in innovative ways....reaching out to parents of poor, inner beltway students when their kids were struggling. Mixing ~ 20% of poor students from places like Seat Pleasant with upper middle income areas like Bowie or Upper Marlboro just didn't seem natural. The 2 groups didn't interact much, rather lived parallel lives. They had their own cliques, and the locals had their own. Interestingly the black/white/hispanic population that actually lived in Bowie was quite integrated. It was more of a class issue and difference in upbringing.