ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310051
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
ONE OF our favorite observers of local and state trends, columnist Alan Ehrenhalt, notes in the current issue of Governing magazine that an old idea is making a comeback: neighborhood schools.
For decades, cities have been busing students or investing in citywide magnet schools in an attempt to fight segregation. But, lately, as courts have become more skeptical of busing plans, more neighborhoods also have begun agitating for schools with well-defined population boundaries, never mind the effect on ethnic balance.
Notes Ehrenhalt: "For the past quarter-century, in polite liberal company, `neighborhood school' has been understood as code for the desire of middle-class white people to avoid sending their children to integrated facilities." Not so much anymore.
In many cities, the phrase "neighborhood school" is coming to reflect urban and minority residents' desire to preserve schools that children can walk to, with boundaries small enough for active parents to know each other and for families to develop a core of neighborhood leadership.
Not only does this concept threaten old, liberal desegregation plans. It also may conflict with the conservative push for school choice, which by definition overrides neighborhood boundaries.
What seems a contradiction may not be. A successful neighborhood school may invite housing desegregation in its vicinity, for example. And some cities - Roanoke is one - are trying to show a commitment to both magnet and neighborhood schools.
Still, Ehrenhalt poses a thought-provoking question: In America of today, is rebuilding community more important than either achieving racial balance or raising test scores?
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB