The San Francisco Chronicle on Initiative could hurt integration efforts:
PROPOSITION 54, which would ban public schools from collecting data on the racial or ethnic backgrounds of students or teachers, could drastically set back school integration efforts across the state.
In a recent meeting with Chronicle editors and reporters, former UC Regent Ward Connerly, who came up with the idea for the initiative, said, "I don't care whether they are segregated or not . . . kids need to be learning, and I place more value on these kids getting educated than I do on whether we have some racial balancing or not."
Connerly rightly points out that there is a debate going on across California about how effective school integration has been in promoting student achievement. A growing number of parents, including many minorities, would prefer to have strong neighborhood schools, rather than a school that may be more diverse, but requires transporting their kids across town.
Responses to this garbage can be sent here: letters@sfchronicle.com. This entry also posted on Topica – Proposition 54.