Bernie Sanders is bringing back the most underrated education policy

[Uncle Joe]

Over the past two decades, education reform has been a major topic of debate and policymaking, from President Bush's No Child Left Behind bill to President Obama's Race to the Top initiative. Reforms have generally followed the pattern of adapting mechanisms from the for-profit business world to "fix" supposedly broken aspects of the public education system: weakening teacher unions, replacing public schools with privately-run charters, tying teacher pay to test score results, and so on.

Yet there is one idea that was once a major focus of reform efforts, but has been set aside for years: racial desegregation.

That is, until now. Last week, Bernie Sanders released a plan to revitalize school integration efforts. It's both an excellent plan and brings attention to a vitally important racial justice issue.

(snip)

So what would Sanders do? He would end the prohibition on funding desegregation transport (a relic from that 1970's backlash), provide several pots of money to encourage schools to desegregate, triple funding support for the poorest schools, expand funding for minority teacher education, ramp up desegregation orders, and provide more money for school construction and maintenance, (as well as several other policies not directly related to desegregation). It's an excellent start, to say the least.

(snip)


https://theweek.com/articles/842453/bernie-sanders-bringing-back-most-underrated-education-policy

[Uncle Joe]

1. And now for a musical socio/dramatic interlude.

[ehrnst]

9. ....

[NurseJackie]

15. ...

[NurseJackie]

16. ...

[George II]

14. Growing up Sidney Poitier was one of my favorite actors, this one of my favorite lines of his:

[comradebillyboy]

2. Bernie wants to bring back the extremely unpopular busing

of students. He really wants to give Trump four more years.

[Demsrule86]

3. Bring back busing no one like it...

[moriah]

5. When I applied for an M2M transfer to get to a better high school....

... well, I needed outside transportation because there was no bus that would come to my neighborhood. Because of no funds to get kids who were on desegregation transfers bussed to their school of choice that still counted as an M2M (Majority-to-Minority) transfer.

In Arkansas, Little Rock Central High School was the location of the desegregation crisis long ago, when it was an all-white school. At the time, most of the people who lived in the area near it were white as well.

After "white flight", the area is now predominately black, and so is the student body. Yet they have better academics than Hall High, the neighborhood high school closest to where my grandparents built (and where I lived as a high school student), including far more AP classes, etc.

Yeah, a lot of the white kids that get into Central for the academics now are rich enough to have cars, or get "hardship" licenses with their "hardship" being that they live in too good a neighborhood to go to Central and parents are too busy to drive them. But I had too much real hardship for my family to afford to buy me a car -- there's a reason we weren't a "nuclear family".

So yeah, funding for M2M transfer transportation is actually needed in many cities, and certainly needed in Little Rock.

It was mandatory bussing that made people mad back then. Now that most M2M transfers are voluntary, paying for those who aren't quite privileged as those who have "hardship cars" to utilize them would help families.

[comradebillyboy]

6. I was only referring to the mandatory busing.

Better public transportation would have big societal benefits.

[George Eliot]

4. He is so right! Ending busing increased poverty, bigotry, and decreased opportunities for POC.

I recently retired from teaching first/second. My parents supported integration. Busing was ok with them. And it is for the common good.

[Fresh_Start]

7. Bernie look at the Constitution

The Federal government does not have control of education.
It is not an enumerated power of the federal government.

[GulfCoast66]

8. WTF! Bringing back forced bussing? You must be kidding?

Talk about a retread. It was well meaning but was a disaster, both philosophically and politically.

I was bused. Everyone hated it. Blacks, whites and teachers. And it meant school systems had to put huge resources into a whole fleet of busses, taking the money from actually education.

And telling people the federal government is pulling your second grader out of the school down the street and sending them across town is no way to win an election.

Let kids go to neighborhood school and fund them all equally. That’s the key. The traditional black schools I was bused to were nothing like the traditional white schools I attended. That was the real problem.

Nothing produced the backlash against democrats by white folks more than bussing. By the early 70’s, at least in my Arkansas district integration was no longer controversial nor hated. But when the courts started messing with people’s children the tide turned.

Another ‘new’ idea from the 70’s.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Here is Bernie's ten point plan.

The charter school moratorium is just part of the 10-point plan the senator officially put forward Saturday:

1. Combating Racial Discrimination and School Segregation

2. End the Unaccountable Profit-Motive of Charter Schools

3. Equitable Funding for Public Schools

4. Strengthen the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

5. Give Teachers a Much-Deserved Raise and Empower them to Teach

6. Expand After-School/Summer Education Programs

7. Universal School Meals

8. Community Schools

9. School Infrastructure

10. Make Schools a Safe and Inclusive Place for All

Some of the specific proposals include boosting federal funding for community-driven desegregation efforts; expanding access to English as a second language instruction; increasing accountability for existing charter schools; and ensuring "schools in rural communities, indigenous communities, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories receive equitable funding."

(snip)

Under Sanders' plan, the federal government would spend $5 billion annually to expand access to summer and after-school programs, teen centers and tutoring — and another $5 billion so community schools can "provide a holistic, full-service approach to learning and the well-being of our young people" through dental and mental health care, substance abuse prevention, community and youth organizing, job training classes, art spaces, GED and ESL classes.

(snip)


https://www.salon.com/2019/05/20/bernie-sanders-proposes-thurgood-marshall-plan-for-public-education/

[Turin_C3PO]

11. Good ideas

but I think bussing would trigger a backlash. Also I’m not sure the federal government has that much power over education. Although that could change, I suppose.

[George II]

12. "Desegregation transport", i.e., busing, is a relic from the 1970s "backlash" because....

....it was a failure. I can't believe that in the 21st Century any politician would flirt with school busing again.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Here is Bernie's ten point plan.

The charter school moratorium is just part of the 10-point plan the senator officially put forward Saturday:

1. Combating Racial Discrimination and School Segregation

2. End the Unaccountable Profit-Motive of Charter Schools

3. Equitable Funding for Public Schools

4. Strengthen the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

5. Give Teachers a Much-Deserved Raise and Empower them to Teach

6. Expand After-School/Summer Education Programs

7. Universal School Meals

8. Community Schools

9. School Infrastructure

10. Make Schools a Safe and Inclusive Place for All

Some of the specific proposals include boosting federal funding for community-driven desegregation efforts; expanding access to English as a second language instruction; increasing accountability for existing charter schools; and ensuring "schools in rural communities, indigenous communities, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories receive equitable funding."

(snip)

Under Sanders' plan, the federal government would spend $5 billion annually to expand access to summer and after-school programs, teen centers and tutoring — and another $5 billion so community schools can "provide a holistic, full-service approach to learning and the well-being of our young people" through dental and mental health care, substance abuse prevention, community and youth organizing, job training classes, art spaces, GED and ESL classes.

(snip)


https://www.salon.com/2019/05/20/bernie-sanders-proposes-thurgood-marshall-plan-for-public-education/