White parents have been catching a lot of heat these days inside public schools. Whether it has them criticizing critical race theory, books in their school library, or the new AP African-American curriculum, white parents have become media darlings when it comes to ranting and raving against our public school system.
That’s why I read with interest an article titled “3 Myths About White Parents and School Choice” appearing last week in EducationWeek online. The authors Allison Roda and Amanda Vender wrote,
“Much has been written about the role that school choice plays in school segregation. The increase in plicies allowing parents to choose among schools coupled with the lack of diversity controls in admissions have contributed to the resegregation of U.S. schools to levels not seen in 50 years. However, we don’t have to accept increasing racial and class divisions as inevitable in 21st-century America. And there is particular opportunity for integration in rapidly gentrifying cities, where the number of white and well-off families with school-age children is growing.”
“Here we outline three myths about white parents and school choice from our work as New York City education researchers and our firsthand experience as white parents who have chosen schools in the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens. We suggest that public-policy officials have wrong ideas about what a significant number of white parents want for their child’s education. Many prefer racially diverse school settings. When public policy fails to offer integrated school choice option, this leads to self-fulfilling prophecies tied to race and class and a new generation of schoolchildren afflicted with race and class biases.”
“Myth #1: White parents always choose the whitest and wealthiest school option.”
“Researchers have documented that in quickly gentrifying cities across the country and internationally, white and affluent parents tend to avoid sending their child to school with majority low-income, immigrant, or Black and Latinx children. School choice encourages them to opt out of their traditional public schools for higher status, whiter, and wealthier options: academically screened public schools (for instance, ones with gifted education programs), public schools in gentrified neighborhoods, certain charter schools with special themes, or private schools.”
“What is often overlooked is that some advantaged parents ‘opt in’ to their neighborhood schools to expose their children to diversity, support the democratic nature of public education, and have their school nearby. As a recent Pew Research Center poll showed, 58 percent of white adults agreed that increased racial and ethnic diversity in the United States makes the country a better place to live. Offering parents more racially and socioeconomically diverse and integrated school options with a focus on social-emotional learning instead of competitive academics would appeal to their intuition about the moral important of diversity in an increasingly multicultural country.”
“Myth #2: White parents want only academically selective schools.”
“Evidence also suggest that public school officials in gentrifying cities, like New York, Boston, and San Francisco, think that all white parents want academically selective schools and cultivate a competitive school choice system to keep those families from leaving. Cities are also where you can often find gifted and talented programs that facilitate the segregation of white and Asians students from the rest. Faced with declining enrollment because of COVID-19-related disruptions, the New York city mayor and schools chancellor reportedly believes that expanding the G&T program and reinstating academic-admissions screens at the middle school level would attract advantaged (and white) parents back to the system. Officials added 100 gifted seats in kindergarten and initiated a ‘top performer’ program for elementary students. We believe these moves will add to the segregation in the larger system.”
“Yet, there is counterevidence that some advantaged, white parents would prefer schools with noncompetitive admissions over schools that screen and segregate students based on test scores, grades, or other academic measures. In a recent study of Brooklyn parents, researchers found support for a ‘weighted lottery’ that gives students from low-income households priority for some seats in a school to ensure racial and socioeconomic diversity. Many of the parents saw the lack of competitive screens as a positive because it led to less stress for their children. Research conducted by one of us has also suggested that schools where leaders have creatively held the line on maintaining racially and ethnically integrated enrollments are popular with white families as evidenced by long waiting lists. But such schools are few and far between.”
“Myth #3: White parents choose schools without regard for the impact of their choices on others.”
“Few decisions parents make have a greater impact on other people’s children than their school choice. When advantaged, white parents flock to certain schools or programs, they signal to other parents that the school is ‘good,’ which influences how others choose. By the same token, they signal that the neighborhood public school they have left behind is ‘bad,’ spurring even greater isolation by race and class.”
“School integration has proved to have a monumentally positive impact for Black and Latinx students later in life. Black and Latinx students who experienced integrated schools are more likely to have higher incomes, better health, and are less likely to live in poverty. A new study shows that making friendships across socioeconomic classes is key to reducing poverty. Maintaining segregated schools puts communities and the future for all of us at risk.”
As I was reading this, one line stuck out.
“But such schools are few and far between.”
Sadly, the fact of the matter is that public schools can’t execute on what Roda and Vender advocate. Offering attractive curriculum, excited teachers, and a positive school climate is just too much to ask these days of our current public education system.
So, we must create a new system of learning – one that all young learners can benefit from, and participate in.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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