Well before the final twist of the financial knife that fully eviscerated the city schools where I live, the magnet school system was, in my opinion, helping along the slow death of public schools.
The effect of the academic magnet school system was, indeed, to cherry-pick the best students--and it left the local feeder schools an academic wasteland. In my kids' non-magnet neighborhood high school, only about 15% of the students could read or do math at grade level at the level of basic competence.
Far from unevenly whitening the academic magnets, they became the only schools in the city that represented the proportional population diversity of the city, ironically-- that is, there are at least some white students attending magnet high schools, in contrast to the neighborhood schools, which are essentially attended by only children of color.
Private high schools are a thriving business within the city, and they, indeed, are very white, and very affluent. The less-affluent long ago fled the city, and continue fleeing, as their children become school-age, and parents see the school system for what it is.
All this is a long-winded way of saying that the magnet school system has done nothing to meaningfully stem " white flight" from the city. And keeping in mind that even the less-affluent white folk are, due to the effects of racism, still more affluent than people of color, this further erodes the tax base of the city, which , because our public schools are largely funded via property taxes, further financially erodes the school system...and on and on.
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Date: 2014-12-11 11:18 am (UTC)The effect of the academic magnet school system was, indeed, to cherry-pick the best students--and it left the local feeder schools an academic wasteland. In my kids' non-magnet neighborhood high school, only about 15% of the students could read or do math at grade level at the level of basic competence.
Far from unevenly whitening the academic magnets, they became the only schools in the city that represented the proportional population diversity of the city, ironically-- that is, there are at least some white students attending magnet high schools, in contrast to the neighborhood schools, which are essentially attended by only children of color.
Private high schools are a thriving business within the city, and they, indeed, are very white, and very affluent. The less-affluent long ago fled the city, and continue fleeing, as their children become school-age, and parents see the school system for what it is.
All this is a long-winded way of saying that the magnet school system has done nothing to meaningfully stem " white flight" from the city. And keeping in mind that even the less-affluent white folk are, due to the effects of racism, still more affluent than people of color, this further erodes the tax base of the city, which , because our public schools are largely funded via property taxes, further financially erodes the school system...and on and on.