Posted: Sun 16 Apr 2006 03:01 Post subject: Law to Segregate Omaha Schools Divides Nebraska
Quote:
April 15, 2006
Law to Segregate Omaha Schools Divides Nebraska
By SAM DILLON
New York Times
OMAHA, April 14 — Ernie Chambers is Nebraska's only African-American state senator, a man who has fought for causes including the abolition of capital punishment and the end of apartheid in South Africa. A magazine writer once described him as the "angriest black man in Nebraska."
He was also a driving force behind a measure passed by the Legislature on Thursday and signed into law by the governor that calls for dividing the Omaha public schools into three racially identifiable districts, one largely black, one white and one mostly Hispanic.
The law, which opponents are calling state-sponsored segregation, has thrown Nebraska into an uproar, prompting fierce debate about the value of integration versus what Mr. Chambers calls a desire by blacks to control a school district in which their children are a majority.
Civil rights scholars call the legislation the most blatant recent effort in the nation to create segregated school systems or, as in Omaha, to resegregate districts that had been integrated by court order. Omaha ran a mandatory busing program from 1976 to 1999.
"These efforts to resegregate schools by race keep popping up in various parts of the country," said Gary Orfield, director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard, adding that such programs skate near or across the line of what is constitutionally permissible. "I hear about something like this every few months, but usually when districts hear the legal realities from civil rights lawyers, they tend to back off their plans."
Nebraska's attorney general, Jon Bruning, said in a letter to a state senator that preliminary scrutiny had led him to believe that the law could violate the federal Constitution's equal protection clause, and that he expected legal challenges.
The debate here began when the Omaha district, which educates most of the state's minority students, moved last June to absorb a string of largely white schools that were within the Omaha city limits but were controlled by suburban or independent districts.
"Multiple school districts in Omaha stratify our community," John J. Mackiel, the Omaha schools superintendent, said last year. "They create inequity, and they compromise the opportunity for a genuine sense of community."
Omaha school authorities and business leaders marketed the expansion under the slogan, "One City, One School District." The plan, the district said, would create a more equitable tax base and foster integration through magnet programs to be set up in largely white schools on Omaha's western edge that would attract minority students.
The district had no plans to renew busing, but some suburban parents feared that it might. The suburban districts rebelled, and the unicameral Legislature drew up a measure to blunt the district's expansion.
The bill contained provisions creating a "learning community" to include 11 school districts in the Omaha area operating with a common tax levy while maintaining current borders. It required districts to work together to promote voluntary integration.
But the legislation changed radically with a two-page amendment by Mr. Chambers that carved the Omaha schools into racially identifiable districts, a move he told his colleagues would allow black educators to control schools in black areas.
Nebraska's 49-member, nonpartisan Legislature approved the measure by a vote of 31 to 16, with Mr. Chambers's support and with the votes of 30 conservative lawmakers from affluent white suburbs and ranching counties with a visceral dislike of the Omaha school bureaucracy. Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican facing a tough primary fight, said he did not consider the measure segregationist and immediately signed it.
Dr. Mackiel, the Omaha superintendent, said the school board was "committed to protecting young people's constitutional rights."
"If that includes litigation, then that certainly is a consideration," Dr. Mackiel said.
Some of Nebraska's richest and most powerful residents have also questioned the legislation, including the billionaire investor Warren Buffett as well as David Sokol, the chief executive of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, which employs thousands in Nebraska and Iowa.
"This is going to make our state a laughingstock, and it's going to increase racial tensions and segregation," Mr. Sokol said in an interview.
The Omaha district has 46,700 students, 44 percent of them white, 32 percent black, 21 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian or Native American. The suburban systems that surround it range in size from the Millard Public School District, with about 20,000 students, 9 percent of whom are members of minorities, to the Bennington district, with 704 students, 4 percent of whom are members of minorities.
Parent reaction is divided. Darold Bauer, a professional fund-raiser who has three children in Millard schools, said he was pleased that the law had eliminated the threat of busing, although he said he was not thrilled about sharing a common tax levy with the Omaha schools.
"What this law does is protect the boundaries of my district," said Mr. Bauer, who is white. "All the districts in the area are now required to work together on an integration plan, and I'm fine with that, because my kids won't be bused."
Brenda J. Council, a prominent black lawyer whose niece and nephew attend Omaha's North High School, said of the law, "I'm adamantly opposed because it'll only institutionalize racial isolation."
Whether the law goes unchallenged is unclear. "We believe the state may face serious risk due to the potential constitutional problems," Attorney General Bruning said in his letter.
But Senator Chambers, a 68-year-old former barber who earned a law degree after his election to the Legislature in 1970, was unmoved. He lists his occupation as "defender of the downtrodden," and suggests that is precisely what he is doing.
"Several years ago I began discussing in my community the possibility of carving our area out of Omaha Public Schools and establishing a district over which we would have control," Mr. Chambers said during the debate on the floor of the Legislature. "My intent is not to have an exclusionary system, but we, meaning black people, whose children make up the vast majority of the student population, would control."
During an interview in his office, Mr. Chambers took time out to answer calls questioning the plan. He told several people bluntly that they were misinformed, but he remained polite.
"You call me anytime, whether you agree with me or not," he signed off one conversation.
He acknowledged that he had nursed a latent fury with the Omaha district since enduring the taunting of schoolmates during classroom readings of "Little Black Sambo" when he attended during the 1940's. He also accused the district of returning to segregated neighborhood schools when it ended busing in 1999, although no high school is more than 48 percent black.
Other black leaders in Omaha criticized the new law.
"This is a disaster," said Ben Gray, a television news producer and co-chairman of the African-American Achievement Council, a group of volunteers who mentor black students. "Throughout our time in America, we've had people who continuously fought for equality, and from Brown vs. Board of Education, we know that separate is not equal. We cannot go back to segregating our schools."
Is there any factual basis for it? Any studies that show that there's a difference in outcome?
It depends upon how you measure it. See point 16, below.
1. The Black-White test score gap is real. It does not merely appear in one specific test nor in just a few particular tests. On the contrary, the gap appears in every test of those mental abilities that are important to success in Western culture. It appears in simple tests like counting backwards and in complex tests like the SAT. It appears in K-12 grades and in college graduation rates. It even appears in employers’ objective appraisals of on-the-job performance. The gap cannot be argued away by saying that it is culturally biased in that it measures only mental skills that are important in White society. Those skills are precisely the ones intended to be measured. Some people are misled because the media calls them “IQ” tests or “aptitude” tests as if they measured something innate. They do nothing of the sort. They measure mental skills, nothing more.
2. The test gap has serious social consequences. It imposes a crushing burden of incompetence, ignorance, and consequent poverty on the Black community. It also imposes a burden on U.S. society as a whole, which must deal with a host of social problems, from violent crime to child neglect, that spring from Black inability to fully contribute or produce.
3. Until about ten years ago, the gap looked partly genetic. A similar test score gap appears in teenagers from rich Black families as well as from poor ones. It is the same in Black teenagers from educated homes as well as those from ignorant homes. It is the same in economically deprived high schools with no books and barely literate teachers, and in high schools lavished with the most costly facilities and advanced-degree teachers that money can buy. It is the same among Black teenagers raised by Black parents, among those raised by interracial parents, and among those raised by two adoptive White parents. It appears in teenagers whose ancestors have been in North American since colonial times and in those whose grandparents immigrated to the United States from Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica, or Barbados. The only common thread, the only factor apparently connecting these under-achieving highschoolers was their genetic African heritage.
Those very findings of an apparent genetic connection drove scientists to seek the genetic link to “intelligence” (whatever that means), and so led them to discover that genes have nothing to do with the test-score gap. The additional findings of the past ten years are:
4. The gap appears at age 3 at the latest. It may well appear earlier but this has not been tested yet.
5. The gap does not appear in unassimilated immigrant grade-school children from sub-Saharan Africa.
6. The gap does not appear in unassimilated British West Indian immigrant grade-school children of predominantly African ancestry.
7. The gap does not appear in unassimilated Latin American immigrant grade-school children of predominantly African ancestry.
8. There is a slight correlation between high school gap width and skin tone.
9. There is no correlation between high school gap width and actual underlying African genetic admixture (as opposed to Black ethnic self-identity)
10. First-generation biracial grade-school children of a Black mother and White father have the same gap as children with two Black parents.
11. First-generation biracial grade-school children of a White mother and Black father have a slightly less severe gap.
12. Black grade-school children raised by two White adoptive parents have no gap at all. (That is, not until adolescence, when their mental skills plunge to the same level as Black children raised by Black parents.)
13. There is some weak evidence of a “grandmother effect.” Although grade-school children of Black parents have the same gap, regardless of those parents’ wealth or education, grade-school children with educated grandparents seem to have a significantly smaller gap.
14. Reducing class sizes for Black grade-school children reduces the gap, but not by much. Increasing class sizes for White grade-school children has no effect on White children’s mental skills.
15. Increasing teacher skill level for Black grade-school children reduces the gap, but not by much. Reducing teacher skill level for White children has no effect on White children’s mental skills.
16. Having only White teachers teach Black grade-school children reduces the gap, but not by much. Having only Black teachers teach White children has no effect on White children’s mental skills.
17. Pouring massive funding into grade-school resources for Black children (facilities, libraries, lunches, art, music) reduces the gap, but not by much. Withholding grade-school resources from White children has no effect on White children’s mental skills.
18. Black children raised by White adoptive parents do not show any gap through grade school. But upon reaching adolescence their mental skills quickly deteriorate to the level of Black children raised by Black parents.
What causes the early childhood Black/White test-score gap? Nobody can yet say for sure, but it is clearly not related to peer pressure (3 years old is too early developmentally for peer pressure) nor to genetics (it is independent of actual admixture). Equally clearly, it is caused by a cultural difference that is unique to U.S. Blacks (but not to Africans, West Indians, nor Hispanics) that happens before age three. The best guess is that many U.S. Black mothers lack the parenting skill to interact with their babies (talk to them, play with them) between birth and 18 months, when cognitive and reasoning skills are developed by precisely such parental interaction. The answer will depend on studies now being done with very young children (0-18 months).
What causes the sudden adolescent plunge in test scores among Black-looking (but not socially "Black") high-schoolers? Again, nobody yet knows for sure, but it cannot be genetic since it happens too late in life. The best guess is peer-pressure, but the answer will depend on studies now being done to somehow objectively measure “peer-pressure.” For more on this topic see the first 47 pages of Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, The Black-White Test Score Gap (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1998). Also, see Mary Lee's opinion (her postgraduate degree is in early childhood development) at http://backintyme.com/ODR/viewtopic.php?t=774&start=13.
Joined: 05 Apr 2006 {Posts: 274 } Location: Chatsworth, CA
Posted: Sun 30 Apr 2006 00:09 Post subject:
Has any comparable research been done on the white/Hispanic test gap? It's not as severe as the white/black test gap but it appears to be persistent.
It would be very interesting to see what role infant care plays in the process, and to contrast infant care among immigrants to the way it's done in their home countries.
It's one of the most significant issues in public education here in So Cal, as it affects high school graduation rates - most of the students who can't pass high school exit exams, and algebra in particular, are Latino - and college attendance rates. It may also play a role in the huge high school dropout rate of Latino students.
My layman's impression is that it's not a question of lacking the mental ability to master algebra. It's the absence of a culture and an environment that are conducive to mastering problem solving disciplines.
These types of subjects depend on regular and consistent practice, and knowledge is cumulative. An hour a night, every night for several weeks is worth much more than cramming over a weekend. As with a musical instrument, there's no way to master the complex pieces unless you first master the basics.
Has any comparable research been done on the white/Hispanic test gap? It's not as severe as the white/black test gap but it appears to be persistent.
I regret that I do not know. I get the impression that the Hispanic gap has not attracted as much attention. I also suspect that the Hispanic gap may vary by region and by class. According to Mary Lee, who taught in Florida for many years, the children of middle-class Cubans, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans in Florida do fine in school. In any event, I have already said more than I know. Perhaps another member could shed light on this.
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