Interesting Comments

Ok, so I am in a History class, we were discussing the Jim Crow laws. I had made a comment in an online post about some of the things we have been discussing in this class and how segregation seems to still exsist in certain regards in the inner cities throughout this country. This is the comment my professor responded back with..............what does everyone think? I find his comments to be very interesting.

"The Jim Crow segregation laws represent de jure segregation, de jure, by law. The type of segregation you are describing is socio-economic segregation it is described by the phrase de facto segregation. Busing formulas, mandated long-distance busing, equalized funding formulas were all supposed to somehow address this large-scale school inequality. It did not work very well.

The funding per student is often 2500-4500 dollars less for inner city students than for suburban students. It is also often 3000-5000 dollars less for rural students than for suburban students. Test scores, achievements and funding do not always go together and some inner city schools out score some rural schools. Chicago inner city (minority) schools have a drop out rate that is about the same as many (majority white) rural Indiana schools ranging from 33-50%. The suburbs seem to have a significant advantage, even the less affluent suburbs (not the poor ones). So poverty and the culture of poverty have an influence on education and school success. The physical quality of the school facilities in the inner city and in some rural areas is due to the lack of capital funds and the lack of government commitment to those schools. Growing areas with rising property values try to build newer modern schools and remodel or replace old ones to attract new business and investment. Poor areas can not attract the new businesses and new housing, they also can not raise the capital to replace old schools unless the state provides the funds. So economic segregation is a fact. It affects minorities in the inner city and whites in the rural areas."

Some things to think about!