School choice: Program has merit, but it needs us all to make it work

Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, January 18, 2014.

Despite its well-intentioned societal objectives, busing to achieve court-ordered integration in public schools was never a good idea. And while school choice, the program that replaced forced busing in Forsyth County in the 1990s, is not perfect, the foundation on which it is built is closer to our values.

School choice, by its name and purpose, represents self-determination. Busing was, in effect, the government regulating a family’s ambitions for the education of their children to achieve a wider social goal. While racial integration was and is a worthy objective, busing created an artificial sense of normalcy. It wasn’t true.

The Journal’s Arika Herron began a compelling series last week on Forsyth County’s school choice program, which has put control back in the hands of parents but which has led to schools that are more divided than ever along racial and socioeconomic lines.

“Some schools are unbalanced, but it’s parental choice,” Jane Goins, the chair of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, told the Journal. Goins, whose own children were bused across town to achieve racial balance, ran for the school board in 1985 in order to change the district’s assignment plan. “If parents feel like they need more integration, that’s their prerogative. They can choose a school that’s not in their neighborhood.”

That has not worked as well as officials had hoped. Schools now largely reflect the racial makeup of the neighborhood in which they’re located, some as high as 85 percent one race. That unbalance is even worse between low- and high-wealth schools. In Forsyth County, 17 elementary schools have enrollments where 90 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

All this has led to overcrowding at schools in more affluent neighborhoods where test scores are higher, while other schools are struggling to attract students.

This unbalance is a problem, but the answer remains parental choice, though perhaps with some stronger incentives. So far, the school system’s Magnet program has been its attempt to persuade parents to choose a school outside their neighborhood.

The concept has merit and is working at some schools, though we need to continue to create Magnet schools that offer a true value that distinguishes them from other schools. And we need to improve the programs that already exist. It has to be about more than marketing.

We look forward to the Journal’s continuing series. It should prompt a community dialogue about how to improve the school choice program. It will work, if we want it to.