Is it OK that school choice allows parents to create segregated schools? At what point in time do their children learn to live with people who look different from themselves? Is this the kind of America we want?
While visiting my mother-in-law she gave me an article titled ‘Urban district, suburban community’ from the March 23, 2016 Holland Sentinel newspaper. The article focused on the long-term effects of school choice on the Holland Public Schools.
The lead sentence of the article stated rather straightforwardly, “State policies that promote school choice have fueled a changing demographic landscape for many of Michigan’s public schools.” The article goes on to say that 1,600 students (over 30%) within the Holland Public Schools’ boundaries have used the state’s 20 year Schools of Choice law to attend charter schools or go to neighboring school districts.
What caught my eye was the reporter’s assertion that as a result of school choice, the district “doesn’t represent the town in which it operates” and that Holland has become “a fragmented community that prolongs stereotypes.” The numbers show the demographic differences between the city and school district:
Holland …
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