When Individual Choice Goes Awry ...

Dearest A,

Good post on individual responsibility and institutional change. Here's another topic along the same lines -- the intractable problems of urban education, most of which can be attributed to individual choices parents make in sending their kids to school.

A recent report on the D.C. schools (public and charter) showed that 90 percent -- 90 percent! -- of its students were children of color. The reason for this shocking statistic: white flight from public schools following Brown v. Board of Education. D.C. schools were less than 60 percent black before that decision; by 1966, twelve years later, 30,000 white children had left the school system.

The individual choices of white and middle-class black parents drained the school system of resources. With less of a tax base for schools, and less interest in the school system among powerful parents who refused to send their children there, the D.C. schools were left to crumble. And crumble they did.

Now, if we want to change the world, education is a pretty darned good place to start. But as long as parents are able to send their kids to private schools, or move to wealthier suburbs with wealthier schools, urban schools will remain mired in the same problems.

The Supreme Court has made this problem even bigger by refusing to allow school districts to use race in their attendance plans. Now, even if school districts happen to have enough white children to fully integrate their schools, the districts can't do so (at least not by taking race into account).

Individual choice created this problem. And now the Supreme Court has prevented an institutional solution. Where do we go from here?

Love,
Sammy