Hey, Check This Out!
I was interested in the article about Seattle's adaptations to help combat segregation in neighborhoods. It reminded me a lot of a separate article I've read about San Francisco and their similar situation. The city is very diverse, with the large majority of citizens being white (48%) or asian (33%). Because of the way their schools were becoming strongly segregated, the system for choosing schools was changed. It had originally used the regular system of a child going to whichever school was closest to their house or neighborhood. Now their system has changed to be far more inclusive- students can choose to attend any school they want to attend within the San Francisco Independent School District. The idea was meant to combat segregation, but in fact made it far worse. While San Francisco neighborhoods are now less segregated than ever, their schools are worse than they were in the 90s. The system is based off of a sort of lottery, parents make a list of the schools they most want their children to attend, and rank them in order. A computer determines which families live in the worst areas in terms of income and schooling, so those people will be more likely to get into better schools. This is a system that caters to gentrification and parents with the ability to spend a lot of time looking at schools and touring them, and the end result is interestingly enough the opposite of the end result in the article about Seattle. I'm sure this isn't just an issue in these two cities, however. I have noticed similar situations in Houston, and other large cities. Through careful planning and time, I think this is definitely and issue we could fix.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/san-francisco-school-segregation.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/san-francisco-school-segregation.html
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