Review of “Nice White Parents”
Real estate and American values in conflict.
1. White flight from the city to the suburbs has increased segregation in schools.2. Administrators in the suburbs attempt to increase diversity with limited financial motivation and success.3. Gentrification creates conflict and upheaval in traditional black and immigrant communities on the fringe.
These are all linked by economic factors that are tied to majority European dominance. When the immigrants settled this country, they valued both liberty and equality. In my review of Joffe-Walt's contributions, she describes racism, but does not dig deeply enough into the values of a dominant European majority.
The first settlers valued individual liberties. Jonathon Winthrop believed that they were creating a city on a hill that would be a beacon to reform Europe from a state religion without individual choice. White flight from the city to the suburbs is directly related to this value. When it comes to education, people are moving to the suburbs to improve the perceived safety and opportunities for their children. Black parents also look to improve their opportunities. Booker T. Washington created the Tuskegee Institute to raise up dis-empowered blacks with desirable skills. People compare themselves to others and sacrifice to get something better. This creates a direct conflict with equal educational opportunities. Federal funding like the Race to the Top has done little to change these unequal education opportunities. Will more centralized funding that removes parental choice work? While I believe state funding following the student is a good idea, Title I programs, and states that have funding that follows the student (New York) have shown that change will not happen until there is a significant shift in American values.
Administrators in Pennsylvania are charged with increasing diversity as an unfunded mandate. They come up with strategies that usually involve delegating this mandate to a staff person or parent. In the first podcast of "Nice White Parents," it does a great job of showing how a desperate principal delegates the problem of losing her school because of lower enrollment by working with a parent to infuse white kids into a traditional Black and Latino school. In this episode, they discuss the "bliss point," which is the percentage of white kids necessary for parents to want to place their kids in this school located on the fringe of gentrification. The bliss point is 26%. The school shortage in a gentrified community like Cobble Hill Brooklyn can not be compared to many school districts in America, but the idea that principals look to delegate unfunded mandates is sound. Changing school funding formulas will lead to greater equality in education especially in states like Pennsylvania where local funding rules. However, it negates the sacrifice that parents made to place their children into a school with safety and opportunity. Joffe-Walt's premise seems to be that unless white parents sacrifice and send their kids to schools on the fringe of their comfort, change will not happen.
The balance of liberty and equality will always be in conflict. In my opinion, this is a function of social class instead of race. This is because the choices parents make to set their children apart will always exist regardless of the funding formula. If parents choose to sacrifice to send their kids to fringe schools, then they need motivation to do so. The charter school movement is one way that parents are choosing to experiment with education. Making these sacrificial choices is necessary to integrate schools and increase equality in education. Mandating these choices is another strategy that could backfire. When parents are forced to send their kids to schools that are not their choice, then human nature and American values will continue to search for ways to distinguish their children from others. In one of the podcasts, white students take over an entire floor which upsets peace and learning at the school. This is not the preferred outcome of this change. Schools and school systems need to take into consideration American values when making policy changes. Severe structural change may lead to greater equity in education, but if this happens at the expense of learning achievement, then what have we accomplished?
As the COVID pandemic has revealed, Online Learning is an option that uses a technological solution providing all parents with options, opportunities, and safety. When a student learns online, they can easily be provided with similar resources and environment. Schools can experiment with blended models where teachers use a flipped classroom approach to encourage collaboration and teamwork onsite two to three days per week. The program I currently teach in uses this model. In some cases we are forced to operate 100% virtually because our students are too far apart to meet together. This allows us to transcend social class and mix diverse economic classes together. This diversity enriches our program while it increases equity in education. It is my hope that our virtual program will expand to include more team building and face-to-face collaboration opportunities. This type of program will become more of a possibility as the pandemic opens up new ways for parents to work from home. When this cultural change becomes the norm, then it will not be unusual for parents to be interrupted in the midst of business meetings. Parents will also be empowered to look more closely at their children's education. All of this involves sacrifice, but this is the kind of sacrifice that American values will embrace.
