Since 1996, Michigan has allowed districts to accept students from outside their boundaries. Parents who felt their child's school was failing them have accepted the transfer offers in increasing numbers each year; 6,200 students tranferred in the school year this program began, and that number rose to 33,506 by 2001-02. Some school districts willingly accept kids because they value "diversity", others because they need the money (their school districts don't have enough youngsters in the local population). In order to protect kids who might have poor academic or disciplinary records due mainly to bad schools, the transfer school districts are forbidden by law from checking into students' disciplinary records and previous academic performance.
Some parents are very happy about this; others, less so. For example, students who were enrolled in predominately-black Wayne County schools were given the choice to transfer to other schools. Some of the school accepting transfer students are in predominantly-white Oakland County. Now, bubbling resentments over choice rules and regulations, apparent racism, and the value of "diversity" are brewing in one apparently foul stew:
A storm swelled all year in the Madison School District, one of only two in south Oakland that accepts Wayne County schools of choice students. Unflattering depictions of "Wayne County kids" were tossed around at Board of Education meetings by parents angry the district's borders opened wider than its neighbors'. The rest closed ranks at the county line.
Every time a parent said "they're" ruining the district, some cringed, because Wayne County sounded like a code word for black. Oakland County is predominantly white; the segment of Wayne County bordering the region is mostly African-American.
It doesn't take a genius to do the math and pinpoint ethnic diversity as one of the most controversial aspects of schools of choice, according to Kurt Metzger, a Pleasant Ridge resident and researcher at Wayne State University's Center for Urban Studies...
Diversity is a side effect of schools of choice, embraced by some, battled by others, and impossible to ignore. South Oakland districts get more diverse every year whether or not they accept Wayne County students.
Tension is showing in some districts, where parents, staff and students complain that choice kids bring down test scores, cause fights, form gangs and sexually harass local girls.
That's a pretty wide range of complaints. I'm sure some kids are rotten apples, but why is the animosity not being directed towards the school administrators, who presumably can monitor disruptive behavior on school grounds? Is the problem here with certain "Wayne County kids", or is it really that the parents think the school officials are not doing anything to ensure that those kids learn to play by the rules?
"A lot of people seem to see it as a negative, that these 'others' are coming to our district," said Stephanie Hall, public relations director for Ferndale schools. "The euphemisms we hear are that we are going to dumb down the curriculum. We hear a lot of reference to 'those' kids."...
Some question whether the protests are really about schools of choice or if they're objections to filling local schools with people of other races and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Some of these parents might be nervous about having "different" kids in their schools, but if, for example, kids are indeed being allowed to form gangs in schools, I can see why some parents might think that's a negative. Do these parents feel that transfer students are immune from criticism? Do they feel pressure to allow bad behavior in the name of "diversity"? And why are the previously gang-free schools allowing that behavior on campus?
Minority population skyrocketed in most local districts the last 10 years, posting huge increases in Berkley - 337 percent, almost 95 percent in Ferndale, 161 percent in Lamphere, 182 percent in Royal Oak, and Madison, struggling most openly with diversity issues, had a 2,733 percent hike. Those numbers do not include the influx of Albanian, Chaldean and other ethnic groups that aren't tracked by the Michigan Department of Education, but are more visible than ever in classrooms and hallways.
Yup, that's not a small change. Not surprising that there's some hue and cry about it. And there do seem to be some obvious and quantifiable negative effects on school districts because of the transfer students:
Madison held a special meeting in September where parents argued vigorously against opening to Wayne County kids and brainstormed alternative ways to raise money without schools of choice, which now provides about 20 percent of its annual budget. Madison used the influx to nearly demolish a $4 million deficit in the last seven years, but it's not worth it to many parents, who bitterly complain about the turn their district has taken in recent years.
School officials haven't been able to track it, but some are convinced droves of in-district kids are leaving largely because of schools of choice...
...schools of choice forced Madison to add remedial tutoring to teachers' work. The district funds hall monitors and extra security because of problems that came with choice, she added.
So how do these concerns stack up against parents who see schools like Madison as lifesavers for their struggling kids?
Kirk and Shirley Box of Detroit, who drive their 11th-grade daughter to Madison High School every day, acknowledge they've heard about problems coming from schools of choice kids. They say their daughter is thriving in ways she never did in her own dilapidated district.
"She's doing good in the classes and everything," Kirk Box said. "I think that they should keep it open. They've been voicing that they've been having some problem with schools of choice (students) coming in, but that shouldn't stop them."
Interestingly, though, the Boxs think that only "the cream of the crop," and not the troublemakers, should be allowed to take advantage of the school choice program (currently, that's not allowable under Michigan law), not least because the good choice kids are tarred with the same brush as the bad:
"My daughter has had some problems with schools of choice kids," Box said. "She says that it really makes it hard on her. It's not all the schools of choice children, but some make it bad for all of them."
So what's the reality, and what's myth?
Kimball High School in Royal Oak tracks the number of suspensions it hands out. Rumors run rampant about "gangs" of Middle Eastern and black kids harassing in-district students, and several fights between teens of different ethnicities were noted by students, but choice and non-choice kids run neck-and-neck every year where misbehavior is concerned, administrators say.
Okay, that's one way to examine it - but have misbehaviors increased overall since school choice began? Do they continue to increase when new students arrive? It's one thing to show that the non-choice kids (we need a better term for them) are fighting as much as the choice kids, but if the overall level of fighting in the school has risen, well, that doesn't exactly dispel the notion that the choice kids might be a bad influence.
Other school districts also say there's no problem; some have the high standardized test scores to back up at least the claim that choice students haven't hurt schools academically. At some schools, the extra funding from choice students have allowed a vast expansion of the curriculum. But will all this "diversity" have lasting effect, or will we just see another round of "white flight"? It sounds like at least some schools are doing what they can to convince parents that choice students don't necessarily negatively affect a school, and parents have every right to ask for that assurance.
If any of you Michigan parents write in with your experiences, please let me know in your emails if I have your permission to quote your letters.
Posted by kswygert at November 12, 2003 06:01 PM