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In a system that is 86% minority, Boston schools somehow become even more segregated

The Globe reports.

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Is Vaznis working for the russians to stir up racial tensions?

5 schools of 125 have a majority of white kids in neighborhoods that are almost all white and this is segregation?

Totally bogus.

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5 schools of 125 have a majority of white kids in neighborhoods that are almost all white and this is segregation?

Yup - that's a pretty accurate definition of segregation in a system that is 85% minority.

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The Globe reported Sunday that nearly 60 percent of the city's schools are intensely segregated, up from 42 percent two decades ago. In those schools, students of color fill at least 90 percent of seats.

The schools enroll 57,000 students, of whom nearly 86 percent are people of color, according to district data.

I'm glad it's not my job to design a computerized assignment system that would prevent occurrence of schools with more than 90% minority students in an 86% minority system, while minimizing transport.

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She is the first African American woman of color ever elected to the Boston City Council. She has been fighting against racism and segregation and misogyny for even more years than her years on the council. She has been right there all along, showing up, telling people that she is the first woman of color, and making sure she goes along with whatever the Mayor tells her to do, whomever the Mayor. That's why Boston is the greatest city in the world.

Could you imagine how much more segregated the schools would be if we didn't have her working tirelessly every day combatting this issue ??? She is doing a fantastic job, we all owe her a debt of gratitude for our success.

#timeforwomen
#metoo

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Linda, you are my favorite troll on this site. Just a great blend of subtly and ridiculousness. Fish could learn something.

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...at 2.75 kids each school, just Uber them.

Easy peasy.

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Are you suggesting it may be simpler for the schools to set maximum quotas for white kids and then just uber the overage to other schools?

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underperforming urban schools? A sort of reverse Metco program. Of all the approaches that have been attempted, that's one I don't think has yet been tried.

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... Because It's Not Legal.

It was thought of over 40 years ago, during the original "busing" crisis.

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It's disappointing and not a good sign for the future.

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Half million dollar condos and $2,300 a month for rent will drive out a lot of people.

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HALF a million dollar condos?? What a steal!

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And "more segregated" compared to when? The 1970's?

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All info is FTA:
"...as enrollment has shrunk by about 8,300 students to 55,500..."
"... white students make up 14 percent of..."
"Collectively, these five schools educate about 1,400 white students, accounting for 18 percent of all Caucasians enrolled in the system. The largest number of white students in any single school in the system, about 1,125, attend Boston Latin School, filling 46 percent of seats there."

So, that's 7770 white kids in total. The bulk of the white kids, 82%, already go to other schools. So, the five schools have 1400 kids enrolled, with 1125 in one school, leaving 275 kids in the remaining four schools.
If you divide that group evenly among the other hundred schools, you get...2.75 kids per school. Not adjusted by grade of course, but my question is, if my numbers are anywhere near right, just what can be done about it?

So, what am I missing? Who has an agenda and what is it?
Short of busting up BLS, there's not much to work with. My speculation is that these articles (there's another on on the Globe's right sidebar) are aimed right at BLS. I think the Sumus Primi crowd has the Sword of Damocles hanging over it.

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It should.

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I'll respond to your comment right after I finish reading the article. Oh, look, right there in the first paragraph:

Nearly 60 percent of the city’s schools meet the definition of being intensely segregated — meaning students of color occupy at least 90 percent of the seats. Two decades ago, 42 percent of schools were intensely segregated.

And then two paragraphs later, I see they bring up your majority-white schools:

The majority-white schools are emerging in the same neighborhoods that had them prior to court-ordered desegregation.

Next time, read the damn article before you spew your inane bullshit.

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Understanding is another. I read it - about 3 times (including twice yesterday because I was more dumbfounded than usual about how dumb Vaznis is).

Think about it - 86%of the kids are POC. Take out BLS and it's closer to 90%, especially in the lower grades that BLS doesn't serve. That's not segregation, it's inevitable that most of the schools are going to be 90% POC.

And 5 schools (4%) across a city of almost 700,000 happen to be more than 50% white - in neighborhoods that are almost all white? This isn't a school segregation problem - it's a housing segregation problem.

Next time UNDERSTAND the damn article before you spew inane bullshit.

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A school does not have to be mostly white to be segregated. It is also intensely segregated if it is more minority than random chance would predict. More concerning is when the heavily minority schools get fewer resources or have worse outcomes than the average for the school system as a whole.

They can't all be BLS, not the least because it wouldn't serve all students to have cookie cutter schools, but we can work to make all public schools into desirable schools that any parent would be proud to send their kids to.

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The heavily minority schools do not in any measurable way get less resources than the Kilmer or Lyndon. BLS does get more resources from its community of parents and alumni than say English but it gets less per student than the other high schools in the system. This is not an equity of city funding issue.

Now outcomes, that's obviously very different and the issue that needs to be addressed. What's so hard is that motivated, involved parents will always seek to find a better option for their kids (rich or poor) and that tends to leave less motivated, less involved parents clustered into bad schools. Lots of parents from neighborhoods without many good schools will chose to enroll into a city wide charter and put their kids onto a bus for an hour each way to get a better option. A richer parent faced with that choice may simply go to a private school. Either way, they are opting out of their local school, leaving that school's community all the poor for the lack of their involvement. Don't know how you legislate around that issue.

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Parkwayne has stated the issue with great clarity and accuracy. THAT is why fixing the schools is so hard.

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Not missing anything - random chance of what - the whole city's population, the neighborhood, what the assignment system predicts?

Again - this has little to do with systematic school segregation - and a lot more to do with housing segregation. Want to fix that - we need to work on income distribution. And that's a whole different kettle of fish.

As for resources - Boston spends $17,000 per pupil annually just in operating costs and about 50% more than that across a host of other school related budgets. I don't have the stats - as Parkwayne points out - BLS gets about the lowest allocation of any HS in the city - but makes up for it with private dollars. The city is actively trying to counteract private fundraising at the five schools mentioned by upping allocations to other schools. Not sure what else they can do.

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A combination of de facto and de jure segregation existed in Boston prior to mandatory school busing. Sadly, de facto segregation, which has existed in many of the northern cities, including and particularly Boston, although not officially in the law books like Southern de Jure segregation was, is far more deeply-rooted and deep-seated, and therefore much more difficult to root out and to get rid of. Sadly, they haven't gotten rid of de facto segregation yet.

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For fifty years the Globe has been leading critic of the Boston Public Schools. How many of the elitist owners, editors, and reporters send their children to Public schools in Boston.

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For an 86% minority school system to be "even more segregated" than it was before is pretty much a mathematical impossibility. It's time to rid Boston of the Gordian knot of busing once and for all. If some schools are worse than others then improve the schools, don't play the musical chairs game of busing some kids into the bad schools so some can go to the good schools. It's counterintuitive.

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It's time to rid Boston of the Gordian knot of busing once and for all.

That's funny. I thought that Boston got rid of mandatory school busing some years ago.

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It’s called “choice “ now.

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Why does Boston and it’s residents want to seem racist? I live in the South and everyone gets along yet in Boston everyone and everything is racial. Today is Boston-more racist claiming. Today down South-black and white kids hanging out together. Get a grip! Stop feeding lies!

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How much do you get paid to troll hyper-local news sites with that awesome 'southern' grammar, tovarish?

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The statistics at the bottom of the article say a lot:

2017-2018 SCHOOL YEAR
Black 45.10%
Hispanic 40.20%
White 8%
Asian 4%
Multi-race 2.20%
Pacific Islander 0.40%
Native American 0%

1997-1998 SCHOOL YEAR
White 45%
Black 38.50%
Asian 11%
Hispanic 4.60%
Native American 0.90%

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"There are actually many white children living in the city, but most are bypassing public institutions in favor of private schools"

Yeah, because reform for public schools is blocked at every turn (see public-private charters the globe endorsed but the voters shot down thanks to the overwhelming unions), and wealthy white people have the financial means to escape, while the zoning laws pushing cost of housing ever higher end up segregating the neighborhoods "naturally"

This is one of the most pathetic headlines I have read in 2018, and there's not exactly a shortage of them as of late.

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Maybe the voters don't trust charter schools as far as they can throw them and it has nothing to do with unions.

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Because the voters know better than the parents what's good for their kids.

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Or is it that voters can't be parents?

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And outspent by special interest groups = unions.

And remember, mostnparents live outside the city and don't have the same problems Boston has. So their viewpoint dictates what our kids get.

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Unions are collective bodies of the working class, while the mainstream ones have been taken over by reformist bureaucrats they represent broad interests of working people. The actual special interests are the capitalists who have poured millions likely billions into lobbying and campaigning for privatization.

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Absolutely. The only way the schools will be less segregated is if Boston is less segregated, and the only way that will happen is if the quality of the schools improves enough so that people who can afford to send their kids elsewhere choose not to.

I fully support the idea of neighborhood schools, where kids are classmates with their neighbors and can walk and bike to school. There are a whole host of benefits to this. However, our neighborhoods themselves are pretty segregated, so the end result will indeed be segregated schools. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, as the schools will have the same makeup as the neighborhoods they serve. The big issue is ensuring that all schools have the resources they need to properly educate everyone, and that there are not disparities in the funding and quality of education between schools.

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It's conceivable that Boston real estate could become less segregated before Boston schools do. If a critical mass of middle-class families developed in a poor neighborhood, that group could decide en masse to enroll in a previously ill-considered school.

http://www.wbur.org/news/2010/07/19/jp-school-2

I'm still trying to figure out whether this is a bad thing.

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https://hurleyschool.org

All of my besties who stayed in the City send their kids there. They even have great cocktail fundraisers for the half of the kids they let into the school from the poor hispanic families that teach their kids spanish and multiculturalism.

Lot's of entitled white elites in salmon colored clothing and bejeweled at those fundraisers

#cocktailsforeducation!
#metoo

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Even us poors can shop at vineyard vines and we know iT's "nantucket red", not salmon. ;-)

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Integrated neighborhoods, along with a better school committee who sees to it that school integration also occurs, is the best way to go, and would definitely stand a better chance of schools, as well as neighborhoods that are integrated racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically, as well. Too bad that B-BURG (Boston Banks Urban renewal Group), along with Louise Day Hicks and her cronies on the all-white, opportunistic, patronage-and-politics-ridden School Committee blew that opportunity clean out of the water by being so malicious--and racist, to boot..

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But when it comes to walking the walk I don’t see any integrationistas moving to Roxbury or Mattapan.

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At least not in the year 2018, as opposed to whatever decade you decided to inhabit.

In fact, whites are moving into Roxbury, to the point that the people who have had to put up with the way it was for decades are now worried about being gentrified right out of their neighborhood.

And, yes, white people are moving into Mattapan as well.

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Is better integrated than Boston? What city should Boston be striving to be?

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the neighborhoods that they're situated in are well integrated--racially, ethnically and socioeconomically.

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Privatizing public schools will not desegregate the school system...

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Outside of Mass, Boston is thought to be amongst the most white cities in the country. Yet this clearly indicates otherwise.

I went to BPS my whole life, and I can count on one hand how many white kids were classmates. And that's from K2 to 12th grade. This isn't new. Boston has always been segregated and always will be.

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When 86% of students are minority, it is not surprising that 60% of schools have at least 90% of minority students. Duh! It is bound to happen. The crux of the issue is not school segregation but people of means are not sending their kids to BPS. There are not enough white students in the system to diversify the schools. The second issue is segregation of Boston by neighborhoods.

The solution to the first issue is to attract more white students, who currently attend private schools to BPS. This can only be achieved by improving BPS. Instead of spending $100 million in busing students, spend that money in teachers and students. Also, there are too many BPS schools with too few students. Shutdown the worst 5% schools and use the savings to improve the nearest schools.

Regarding the second issue of housing segregation, maybe gentrification is the solution. You want people of means bused to your schools but do not want them to live in your neighborhood. That is double standards.

Also, cancel METCO. This program is siphoning state money and the best and brightest minority students to suburbs while benefiting few. Use the state money from METCO to improve BPS. If the suburbs want diversity, they should create more affordable housing themselves instead.

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admit a handful of black and other non-white kids into their schools, they did not particularly want them taking up residence in their towns.

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Has limits

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How would gentrification solve the issue? That would just drive up housing prices and drive out many of the current, diverse residents. No?

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Having schools that are more than 90% Black and Hispanic, then is there a way to change that without a lot of those kids going somewhere else?

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in Boston anymore. You know, the people who would tend to send their kids to public school? There might still be plenty of white families in Boston, but, they are FAR different than their less-wealthy counterparts living in the city 25 years ago.

Most likely BPS enrollment will continue to decline as housing prices grow more and more preposterous. Ranch houses for around $480k in Mattapan, and condos for $330k in Four Corners. Everyone in these areas will be priced out, or will cash out if they are lucky enough to own. Eventually as tech and finance money spreads to every corner of the city, BPS will become an elite schooling ground for the Jeff Bezos wannabes of the world.

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More or less diverse than ol' Southie?

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Frankly, Dan Farnkoff, nowadays, even Southie is more diverse than Weston or Dover.

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