Are Segregated Schools Inferior or am I a Snob?

Click on the photo to the right to enlarge.  Image of the Wilson "Mexican School" class of 1934 courtesy of La Raza Lawyers of California

My sister recently became another casualty of the economic recession.  She and her husband just could not keep up with their adjustable rate mortgage that had skyrocketed to over $4500 a month.  Of course, a lot of people—including me—told her not to get in over her head.  But ultimately the smooth talk of her mortgage broker won out over family and friends.

 By the time my sister had finally accepted that she would have to leave her beautiful home, she only had a few weeks to find a suitable place for her, her husband, her three school-age children, and her two cats.  She found a large, attractive 3-bedroom apartment in Santa Ana, California on the border of Costa Mesa, both in Orange County.  Although it’s a very nice community, my sister hadn’t realized that her children would have to go to some of the worst schools in Orange County (despite being in OC, the schools are below the California average for reading and math and most of the parents dropped out or at best only completed high school). 

In evaluating these schools, I realized that not only did the performance data alarm me but so did the fact that roughly 70% of the kids at my nephew’s new high school would be Latinos.  I asked myself: how could I, a life-long activist, have such a visceral reaction to this fact?  I hate to buy into stereotypes.  And in any case, who am I to say where my sister should send her kids to school?  I don’t have children.  Further, I went to Sierra Vista Middle School and to University High School both in the Irvine Unified School District.  Perhaps I have developed a snooty filter that is causing me to look down on these schools as being somehow not good enough for my nieces and nephew.  I hope that is not the case.  I’d like to think that ever since California’s groundbreaking desegregation case, Mendez v. Westminster School District (1947), we Latino activists have been conscious about segregation and its pernicious effects.  I also have some personal knowledge related to the disparities since I spent two and half years with my Grandparents in the South Central/South Bay area where I attended some of California's roughest schools (long story) .  But who knows what else is going on?--perhaps that's for a therapist to figure out!

What I do know is that many Latino and African-American parents who have children in all Black or all Latino schools, have a sense that such schools are inferior.  They know that their schools get fewer resources and generally lower quality teachers.  They also know—as my mother commented recently—that if the school is all Latino or all Black, there is sure to be some violence going on!  

NPR ran a fantastic story today about the increasing segregation of schools in the suburbs of Chicago.  Many of those interviewed, expressed gut-feelings like mine as well as commentary similar to that of my mother.  I don't have a solution to the segregation problem.  Some of the best minds and organizations have been tackling it for a very long time.  At the end of the day,  I only know that most segregated schools end up being separate and unequal.  So separate and unequal, that the mere thought of a loved-one going to a segregated school can produce feelings of fear and anguish even in the hearts and minds of self-proclaimed activists like me.

Ok, don't despair, here's some hope from the Bronx: