Greg Freeman: Desegregation Plan Could Bring About Integration's Decline. P-D 1/21/1999

Headline: DESEGREGATION PLAN COULD BRING ABOUT INTEGRATION'S DECLINE
Reporter: By Greg Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Thu., Jan 21, 1999
Section: METRO, Page: B1, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

Downside of settlement
If the polls are accurate, St. Louis voters are likely to approve a two-thirds-cent sales tax to settle the school desegregation case here when they go to the polls in two weeks.
While there may be benefits in settling the case, there will also likel y be a downside: The resegregation of schools in the area.

FOCUS St. Louis has produced a thorough report examining all sides of the proposed settlement. The civic group has also looked at what's happened in other cities when desegregation has ended.
"Resegregation is . . . likely to result from the end of the transfer program and the return of 13,000 students to the St. Louis public schools, " the report states. "In such a case, the Civic Progress Task Force Report on Desegregation estimated that the percent of African-American students in the St. Louis public schools would increase from 78 percent to 85 percent, and 56,000 white students in St. Louis County would no longer attend school in an integrated setting."

Perhaps as important as the educational benefits of school desegregation has been the opportunity for students to get to know other students of different races and backgrounds. Because of the neighborhood segregation that this community deals with, the desegregation program provides perhaps the only opportunity for students of different color to meet.
I've spoken with countless students over the years who have gone through the program who have told me that it opened their eyes to people whom they had known nothing about. Many friendships have developed as a result, friendships that may ultimately lead to a breakdown in the polarization here. Many of those young people may be less reluctant to live next door to someone of a different race. They may help erase some of the unspoken racial boundaries that exist.
As the proposed settlement states, those students currently in the deseg program will be allowed to continue in the program until they graduate from high school. But if school districts choose to opt out of the program after three years, school busing as we know it will end. (The Ladue School District's insistence that it be allowed to opt out after one year could be an indication as to how eager some districts are to get out from under court order.)

Housing segregation is fairly common in St. Louis. There are some neighborhoods in the city, such as Skinker-DeBaliviere, and some municipalities in St. Louis County, like University City, where people of different races live together, and without acrimony. But those areas are far from the majority.

Knowing that, it's important for voters to realize that approving the settlement agreement will not be the end, just another step. Just as approval of the agreement won't guarantee a better St. Louis school system, it also won't guarantee that students of different races will have the opportunity to know one another, to learn the value of different cultures.
Not only are students enriched by developing relationships across racial lines, they also become more competitive in the work force. By 2010, a mere 11 years from now, nearly 30 percent of the nation's population will be made up of people of color. Those who are able to easily communicate with people of different cultures will be much more valuable to businesses than those who aren't. Students who have gone through school desegregation have been given a head start.

If desegregation ends, we'll need to develop other ways of bringing people together, particularly young people, who are less jaded and set in their ways than their parents.
Civic leaders, educators and others should give consideration to efforts to encourage greater interaction among St. Louisans.
The educational merits of school desegregation are certainly open to debate. But the benefits of students of different races getting to know one another can't be underestimated. Let's hope that's not forgotten as the debate on a desegregation settlement roars forward.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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