Shades of Gray in Reassignments

But as the product of an integrated K-12 North Carolina public school system – often the only African American male in my class – I have a personal perspective on the issue of diversity in schools. In the case of school reassignment policies, my views seemingly run counter to those of African American leaders who often are quoted by the press.

 

Under districting rules, a family’s address dictates their public school assignment. To ensure a quality education for our daughter when she is old enough to attend school, my family must play by those rules and reside in a community with successful public schools. But imagine if we signed a 30 year mortgage only to have the school board reassign our daughter to another school.  Moreover, imagine that a reason for the reassignment is that my daughter’s presence would improve the diversity of the other school, which, adding insult to injury, performs below the standard of the community school we selected.  As a final straw, imagine that our daughter would have a forty minute commute instead of an eight minute ride to school. 

 

In this scenario, the school system would have yet one more headache in their reassignment plan: one angry black father! A father who, frankly, would have no choice but to stand with the Wake Schools Community Alliance and put myself at odds with many of the elder African American leaders for whom I have great respect. 

 

Unfortunately, my hypothetical dilemma is a present-day reality for many parents. It illustrates that the reassignment debate is not necessarily about black families fighting against white families’ desire to re-segregate schools. It’s not that simple.

 

The primary concern for parents of my generation is not just diversity in our children’s classrooms, but the quality of education our kids receive. It all comes back to parental school choice--or the lack thereof in the current assignment plan.