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Idea Stirs Questions On School Diversity

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By CARLOS MONCADA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 14, 2007

Updated: 11/14/2007 12:33 am

LARGO - "Separate but equal" faded as a guiding principle in public education after a U.S. Supreme Court decision five decades ago that forced racial integration.

But the idea, if not the phrase, is making a comeback in a proposal that would steer Pinellas County students to schools in their own neighborhoods - neighborhoods that remain clearly divided by race.

Most parents want it that way, the school district contends, pointing to surveys showing that schools close to home are a priority.

Yet dissension dogs a student assignment plan that has been nearly two years in the making as community leaders, teachers and some parents question whether racial imbalance will rob students of resources and exposure to other cultures.

The Pinellas County School Board on Tuesday voted to hold a workshop on the plan Nov. 20 and take final action Dec. 11, after a public hearing. It would take effect next school year. Students would be grandfathered in to their current schools, including those wishing to join an older sibling at school.

"The fear is that if it goes all black, then nobody really cares," said the Rev. Louis Murphy of Mount Zion Progressive Baptist Church in St. Petersburg.

"As long as you have white folks in these schools, then the powers that be are going to care," he said. "But if it's all black, hell, let them kill each other. That's the fear."

It's the same argument that led the U.S. Supreme Court to reject "separate but equal" 53 years ago in Brown v. Board of Education - and that led courts in Florida to order desegregation in Pinellas 43 years ago.

Segregation's Cost

Officials in Florida's seventh-largest school district acknowledge some schools will become "racially identifiable," but they reject the notion that the district will fall back into old patterns of neglect in poorer parts of the county.

"The fear among some people is that life will go back to what it was before we went under a court order," said James Madden, assistant superintendent for student assignment. "There's absolutely no way the district would let that happen."

Is the concern valid?

"I think it's one the community will watch us on, and rightfully so. I think it's one we have to be mindful of to make sure we continue to operate in a fair and equitable manner."

Districtwide, whites make up 68 percent of the enrollment of 112,174; blacks, 20 percent; and Hispanics 8 percent. The remainder are of other ethnicities.

Most of the county's blacks, who make up about 8 percent of its 900,000-plus population, live in south St. Petersburg and in parts of Clearwater in central Pinellas and Tarpon Springs to the north.

The issue of "resegregation" is being debated nationwide as schools are released from federal court rulings designed to bring racial balance to campuses. The latest came in July when the U.S. Supreme Court limited the ability of school districts to assign students by race.

When students are assigned to neighborhood schools, enrollments mirror local housing patterns and become less diverse, national studies have shown.

The proposed assignment plan in Pinellas is a way to end "controlled choice," a system in place since 2003. Controlled choice was part of a settlement between the district and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund requiring a halt to discrimination against black students.

Choice encouraged families to select schools outside their neighborhoods and required ratios be maintained to keep schools racially balanced. Yet fewer parents than expected have opted to exercise the choice option, as has been the case in Hillsborough County.

Hillsborough launched a parental choice plan in 2004, but the plan has concentrated races and families with lower incomes into the same schools. For the most part, parents have chosen to stay in their neighborhoods rather than select a school farther away.

Last year, a district survey of Pinellas parents found that majorities of all races supported sending their children to a school close to home, even though that offers fewer choices in schools and less diverse enrollments. The district sent surveys to 33,290 public school households and received responses from 7,716.

"At least upfront it looks like we're getting what we fought for," said Kym Ottaviani, a south St. Petersburg parent. "Is what we fought for maybe what's best for the entire district? Maybe not. Neighborhood schools in the long run means resegregation."

The Benefits Of Proximity

Among the benefits cited for close-to-home schools is more parental involvement, strengthening schools and neighborhoods alike.

The district would rely mostly on magnet programs and fundamental schools to create diversity. Such programs offer educational themes to draw students from different parts of the county.

Yet the long-term consequences of resegregation remain unclear for Murphy.

He and others think segregation is inevitable but must be offset with extra attention and resources for schools in disadvantaged areas.

They fear that single-race, high-poverty schools will harm student achievement, in part because studies show teachers in such schools often are less experienced, turnover is higher and there is a lack of academic focus.

"There are still a lot of questions that haven't been answered," said Murphy, who like others favors delaying final action on the plan. "I like the concept, but if we're going to do neighborhood schools, we can't continue to distribute funds the way we have been doing. There's nothing in writing as to how we're going to address these special needs."

Community groups also have weighed in on the issue, including the St. Petersburg chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which has criticized the plan's resegregation aspect and the prospect that it could widen the achievement gap between white and black students.

The Concerned Organizations for Quality Education for Black Students, which has been pushing the district to do more to close the achievement gap, opposes reserving large percentages of seats in south county "attractor" schools for white students from north Pinellas. It also wants the school district to develop a plan ensuring that the neediest schools, those with the biggest number of struggling students, receive more resources than those with fewer struggling students.

"The key is, 'Are you giving each of them a fair and equitable education?'" said Madden, the assistant superintendent for student assignment. "That's what it's about."

Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com.

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