Some schools are becoming less diverse

The end of 37 years of mandated busing for integration in 2008 was a liberating victory for Wichita’s USD 259, but worries that some schools could lose their racial diversity are being realized.

As of eight years ago, black families in northeast Wichita’s “assigned attendance area” could choose a nearby school or from among the district’s many magnet programs. And white parents no longer had to wonder whether the birthday lottery would dictate where their children attended elementary school.

Now, as Suzanne Perez Tobias reported in the Sunday Eagle, nearly a quarter of Wichita’s 85 schools are considered single race, each with 60 percent or more of students who are either white, African-American or Hispanic. The numbers seemingly don’t comply with the district’s voluntary agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which calls for no Wichita school to be more than 40 percent black or more than 55 percent white.

Superintendent John Allison emphasizes how much it means that “our parents are making those selections” about whether their children will attend neighborhood or magnet schools. It’s also true that updated facilities, standardized curriculum and professional development foster equity across the district these days, even amid racial imbalance.

And it’s important to recall that Hispanic students (now about one-third of the district) were not part of the Office of Civil Rights agreement, so the burden of mandated busing fell mostly on African-Americans. Many of those black families decided they would rather their children attend a neighborhood school than be bused across town.

Many teachers and others would say the biggest fight in USD 259 is against poverty, which creates achievement challenges for children and teens of all races across the city. They surely are right.

But promises were made in 2008, especially to older African-Americans who remembered the substandard neighborhood schools that predated and justified forced busing. Those promises still matter.

District leaders need to renew their efforts to promote ethnic diversity in schools citywide. More magnet upgrades and outreach may we needed, like those enabled by a recent $12 million federal grant. The goal of racial balance should continue to help guide facilities decisions as the city’s population and USD 259’s enrollment continue to grow. Parents need to be engaged as well, as they were leading up to the decision to move away from race-based busing eight years ago.

The district’s drift away from mandated integration and toward choice must not mean a return to schools being inequitable as well as racially isolated.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Some schools are becoming less diverse."