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Miles away and worlds apart

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Illinois

The most segregating school district border in the country separates Detroit and Grosse Pointe, two municipalities with a long history of inequality. The 1974 Supreme Court case Milliken v. Bradley dealt with a desegregation plan that included majority-black Detroit and its nearly all-white, suburban neighbor districts, Grosse Pointe among them. In that case, the Court held that desegregation could not be ordered across the school district lines drawn by state and local governments. In essence, the Court declared school district borders to be impenetrable, even when cross-district efforts are necessary to achieve meaningful integration.

When the case was filed in 1970, the poverty rate among all residents of Grosse Pointe was 3%. Detroit’s poverty rate was five times that. Things have only worsened since; Detroit’s poverty rate is now 7.5 times Grosse Pointe’s.

* It may surprise you to learn that the 10th most segregating school district border (out of 33,500 such borders in the entire country) is right here in Illinois between the Silvis-area Carbon Cliff Barstow School District 36 and Geneseo’s Community Unit School District 228.

* From the Quad City Times…

To compile the list, EdBuild compared poverty rates, median property values and median household incomes between neighboring school districts. Here are some of the findings:

• Carbon Cliff-Barstow has a poverty rate of 45 percent while Geneseo has a poverty rate of 6 percent. The average rate across Illinois is 15 percent.

• The median property value in Carbon Cliff-Barstow is $96,300. In Geneseo, it is $147,000. The median for the state is $130,800.

• The median household income in Carbon Cliff-Barstow is $32,273. In Geneseo, it is $62,197. The median for the state is $57,000. […]

Geneseo is mostly white and has just a 4 percent minority population. Carbon Cliff has 10 times more minority students. […]

All third through eighth graders enrolled in Illinois public schools take the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, tests in the spring.

The state average showed that 29 percent of students met and 4 percent exceeded expectations; 28 percent approached, 24 percent partially met and 14 percent did not meet expectations.

In Geneseo, 30 percent met and 2 percent exceeded expectations; 34 percent approached, 24 percent partially met and 11 percent did not meet expectations.

In Carbon Cliff-Barstow, 11 percent met expectations and none exceeded expectations; 27 percent approached, 35 percent partially met and 27 percent did not meet expectations.

Discuss.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 2:05 pm

Comments

When are all children going to be considered equal investments? Brown v. Board of Education should have settled the matter. If the Republican Party should stand for anything then it should stand for the concept everyone should have equality of opportunity. Thus, Illinois should fund public education equally whether a student’s parents are rich or poor.

Comment by Northside Dude Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 2:25 pm
Residential segregation keeps black students out of better schools. That segregation has historical roots. The fact that suburbs adjacent to Detroit, such as Grosse Point and Dearborn, had no black residents for generations, was not simply a coincidence. It was the result of government policies, some official and some unofficial, to perpetuate segregation.

Dearborn’s longtime mayor, Orville Hubbard (1942-1978) once told a reporter that “as far as he was concerned, it was against the law for Negroes to live in his suburb.”

Comment by anon Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 2:35 pm
Moving is such hard work. I’ve only done it 15 or so times in my life as I chased better opportunities. Get off your bottom with your hand out, and get on your feet with your nose down. Amazing how that works.

Comment by Papa2008 Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 2:49 pm
Advocates of school choice, such as Bruce Rauner, never include statewide public school choice, allowing students to transfer to any school in the state, regardless of where the student lives. Apparently choice has its limits.

Comment by anon Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 2:52 pm
What does Bruce Rauner have to do with stopping any student from transferring to any school they choose to attend. If they live in district, or pay tuition, they can attend. Move!!

Comment by Papa2008 Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 2:59 pm
This is a prime example of how statistics lie. Geneseo has been mostly white for about 130 years. Geez, the only minorities in town for a period of time were exchange students, save one black family that happen to be a charter member of the towns’ founding. It also had a rich history in the underground railroad during the Civil War. Move there if you want, open arms will greet you.

Comment by Captain Illini Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 3:00 pm
Equal spending on education will not have equal results when the homes are widely different. Parenting still trumps teaching.

Did segregation increase disparity, yes. Is it the major driver today? I don’t think so.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 3:02 pm
==Advocates of school choice, such as Bruce Rauner, never include statewide public school choice, allowing students to transfer to any school in the state, regardless of where the student lives.==

What about parochial schools? I know a few Catholic schools in my town where tuition is a third lower than what CPS spends per pupil. I’m sure plenty of Chicago low-income parents would take that voucher.

Comment by City Zen Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 3:17 pm
2:52 - in the area where I grew up vouchers are not offered and are not feasible. School districts are 10+ miles apart and there are no magnet, charter or parochial schools. None.

Comment by Team Sleep Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 3:29 pm
Does this mean public education has failed in Michigan?

Comment by blue dog dem Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 3:51 pm
Move.

Comment by Saluki Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 3:55 pm
Yo saluki. Didnt have a chance anywhere to talk about the Southerns’ endorsement of Bryant. What ya think?

Comment by Blue dog dem Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 4:20 pm
Sadly, to a great extent people of one race want to live near people like them. I don’t think society will ever get beyond that. In terms of the schools, any attempt to level out funding would need to get away from the local property tax system. Residents in areas with good schools want them to stay good, because they directly fund them in large part and because they affect property values. If someone can come up with a way to change the formula without hurting property values and telling well performing districts that they are losing say $10m overnight and getting nothing in return, then go for it.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 4:33 pm
Move… Really, that’s your answer to education equitability??? Is there a job available for the family in the better school district??? Is there affordable housing??? Does the family have their own personal transportation??? Are there other family concerns (elderly parents, health issues) that would make such a move a very great hardship??? Bootstraps ain’t always attached to everyone’s lives.

Comment by Anon221 Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 4:48 pm
Moving-into excellent school districts–sounds like a good idea but is unaffordable for many, not just minorities, but also low-to-middle income whites.Affluent residential areas have many ways of restricting access to all but the affluent-minimum lot sizes and highly restrictive local zoning being only two. And as the school ratings go up, the housing gets even more expensive.

Illinois does have a law mandating affordable housing in all communities, but implementation seems to have been very, very slow in many affluent areas.

Comment by Cassandra Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 5:07 pm
Naperville and CPS spend about the same per person with vastly different results. There is a point where more money has little effect.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 5:15 pm
@Last Bull Moose 5:15===Naperville and CPS spend about the same per person with vastly different results. There is a point where more money has little effect.===

And, a larger percentage of the money comes from local property taxes in Naperville. CPS gets less from their (low) property tax and more from the state.

Comment by DuPage Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 5:38 pm
Well, when you look at a map, it kind of tells the story.

The comparison being made is between an urban centric (gentrified) school district and a much larger suburban/rural unit school district, with a strong transportation network. The Unit school district also appears to contain most of the commercial/industrial growth corridor on the East side of the Quad Cities. Can’t tell about the Quad Cities nuke plant, but the Unit school district does appear to have much of the East/South I-80/I-74 Interstate corridors.

IMO, this is really a story more about Location, Location, Location. Also, business trends and transportation networks.

Comment by Judgment Day Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 5:42 pm
No. This is really a story more about family structure. Maybe the Distinguished Fellows or the Paul Simon Institute can conduct a study/survey and shed some light on this area.

Comment by blue dog dem Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 6:52 pm
A bit off topic but, perhaps for a number of reasons, we would be better off if we had school districts based on county lines rather than those that were drawn in the past. County schools like some other states do.

Comment by simple mind Tuesday, Oct 25, 16 @ 8:28 am
another sad consequence of our zip-code school funding system that continues to violate the state constitution

Comment by downstate dem Tuesday, Oct 25, 16 @ 10:49 am
Driving from Detroit into Grosse Point is pretty amazing. You go from run-down, boarded up buildings, payday loan shops, liquor stores, graffiti, tall grass, trash everywhere…and then you cross the street and you’re in beautiful Grosse Point, with a gorgeous welcome sign, complete with perfectly manicured landscaping, beautiful flowers and multi-million dollar homes. The only other comparison I can think of is driving from San Diego into Tijuana.

Comment by downstater Tuesday, Oct 25, 16 @ 1:01 pm