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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140011019-05012007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>I wonder if the issue is not racial mix but school
rankings. Rather than forcing integration and bussing of children, it
could be that creating high-quality schools in traditionally under-served areas
is an answer. It seems to me there are lots of proposals out there, and
some make a lot of sense, but the bottom line issue is how schools are funded in
this country. </FONT></SPAN><BR></DIV>
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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> summit-bounces@sna.providence.ri.us
[mailto:summit-bounces@sna.providence.ri.us] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Greg
Gerritt<BR><B>Sent:</B> Friday, January 05, 2007 10:55 AM<BR><B>To:</B> Summit
Neighborhood<BR><B>Subject:</B> [Summit] Education<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV><FONT face=Palatino><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">This one is a bit
thought provoking. Greg<BR><BR><BR></SPAN></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT face=Palatino><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">STUDY: BETTER
EDUCATED WHITES PREFER SEGREGATED SCHOOLS, NEIGHBORHOODS<BR><BR>RICE
UNIVERSITY - A study, co-authored by Rice sociologist Michael<BR>Emerson,
shows that increased education of whites, in particular, may<BR>not only have
little effect on eliminating prejudice, but it also may<BR>be one reason
behind the rise of racial segregation in U.S. schools.<BR>Furthermore,
higher-educated whites, regardless of their income, are<BR>more likely than
less-educated whites to judge a school's quality and<BR>base their school
choice on its racial composition.<BR><BR>Black–white racial segregation has
been on the rise in primary and<BR>secondary schools over the past decade.
While whites, especially those<BR>who are highly educated, may express an
interest in having their<BR>children attend integrated schools, in reality,
they seek out schools<BR>that are racially segregated. In the study,
researchers found, on<BR>average, that the greater the education of white
parents, the more<BR>likely they will remove their children from public
schools as the<BR>percentage of black students increases.<BR><BR>Emerson and
research colleague David Sikkink, an associate professor<BR>of sociology at
the University of Notre Dame, know that income and<BR>other factors come into
play in terms of school choice, but their<BR>study shows that, even after
controlling for these variables,<BR>education has an unintended effect. Whites
with more education place a<BR>greater emphasis on race when choosing a school
for their children,<BR>while higher-educated African Americans do not consider
race.<BR><BR>"I do believe that white people are being sincere when they claim
that<BR>racial inequality is not a good thing and that they'd like to see
it<BR>eliminated," says Emerson. "However, they are caught in a
social<BR>system in which their liberal attitudes about race aren't reflected
in<BR>their behavior."<BR><BR>According to the researchers, part of this
behavior is explained by<BR>the place and meaning of schooling for children of
more-educated white<BR>parents. Degrees, for example, become status markers,
regardless of<BR>income. Parents seek quality education for their children to
ensure<BR>they are not hindered from achieving the "good life." As
earlier<BR>studies indicate, education is a key to social mobility and one of
the<BR>most important forms of cultural capital.<BR><BR>Emerson and Sikkink
cite earlier work on school choice in<BR>Philadelphia, where race was found to
be a factor in whites'<BR>evaluations of the quality of a school. Unlike
blacks, who judged<BR>schools on the basis of such outcomes as their
graduation rates and<BR>students' test scores, whites initially eliminated any
schools with a<BR>majority of black students before considering factors such
as schools'<BR>graduation rates. When they analyzed a national data set of
whites and<BR>non-Hispanic blacks to see if the level of their education would
have<BR>an impact on their school choice, Emerson and Sikkink found a
similar<BR>pattern. "Whites with higher levels of education still made
school<BR>choices based on race," explains Emerson, "while blacks did
not."<BR><BR>The researchers found that regardless of income, more-educated
whites<BR>in their data set also lived in "whiter" neighborhoods
than<BR>less-educated whites. Higher-income African Americans also lived
in<BR>whiter, but more racially mixed, neighborhoods than
lower-income<BR>blacks. "The more income African Americans made," Emerson
says, "the<BR>more likely their children attended more racially mixed schools
than<BR>did African American children of less-educated, lower-income
parents."<BR>This, he explains, is because more highly educated or
higher-income<BR>African Americans often live in areas with racially mixed
local public<BR>schools, close to high concentrations of whites that have
undergone<BR>desegregation plans, while African American children of
less-educated,<BR>lower-income parents attend largely black schools. When
separating<BR>income from their analysis, however, the researchers concluded
that<BR>unlike whites, African American parents' higher-education levels
don't<BR>affect their school choice.<BR><BR>"Our study arrived at a very sad
and profound conclusion," says<BR>Emerson. "More formal education is not the
answer to racial<BR>segregation in this country. Without a structure of laws
requiring<BR>desegregation, it appears that segregation will continue to
breed<BR>segregation." Titled "School Choice and Racial Residential
Segregation<BR>in U.S. Schools: The Role of Parents' Education," the study
will be<BR>published in an upcoming issue of Ethnic and Racial
Studies.<BR><BR><FONT color=#0000ff><U><A
href="http://www.rice.edu/sallyport/2006/fall/sallyport/segregation.html">http://www.rice.edu/sallyport/2006/fall/sallyport/segregation.html</A><BR></U></FONT></SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT
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