Admit it. Many middle-class families are scared to send their children to schools with low-income children of color.
More than 60 years after the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, that mandated desegregation in schools, and after 25 years of education reform, white families aren’t flocking to neighborhood schools or charters with black children. In my view, faith-based schools are filled with people who are afraid of poor folk as much as they are God-fearing.
If we’re honest, the racial bias associated with high concentrations of low-income black and brown students is the main reason why people whisper, “I’m not going to experiment with my kid.”
There are some people who aren’t afraid. Teachers and school personnel who work with low-income students are more likely to trust their own work and don’t see students as liabilities or risks. If teachers commit to sending their own children to public schools maybe people who pay tuition to alleviate their fears will follow.
[For more of this story, written by Andre Perry, go to http://hechingerreport.org/isn...educational-quality/]
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