Arguments familiar as court weighs school admission

Dallas Morning News | Mark Davis:

“What could be more basic than the precept that kids should attend the schools closest to their homes? America is a tapestry of neighborhoods of varying racial mixes. Because everyone lives where they choose, some schools will feature a prevalent race while others are a mixture of pigments. There is nothing more or less advantageous about any particular mix. This is a freedom argument. People should live where they wish to live, and the kids should all go to the closest school.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

It's not true that everyone lives where they choose. Does Mark Davis truly believe that most people willingly choose to live in crime- and drug-infested neighborhoods in substandard housing with unreliable heating, plumbing, or electricity? Poverty effectively traps people in such housing. And such housing tends to be concentrated as a result of zoning laws.

More basic than sending kids to neighborhood schools is sending kids to good schools. Champions of school choice know that. At least they do when the goal is to siphon off public school money to private, religious schools. School choice can be used for a nobler goal, helping end segregation, which is still a problem today, whether that segregation is the result of Jim Crow laws or more subtle economic factors.

I am no fan of forced busing. Some parents prefer neighborhood schools, even when they are inferior. Instead, we ought to promote a voluntary school choice program. Commit to providing a slot in any public school that a student wants to go to, regardless of distance, regardless of district boundaries. And commit to providing free transportation to that school. If that inner city child wants to ride a school bus two hours each way to that shiny new school in the suburbs, he ought to be given that choice. Phase in the program, so school districts have a chance to adjust to demand. As popular schools get crowded, districts will need to expand them or emulate them in its other schools to balance demand.

Is this an expensive solution? Possibly. But so is forced busing. So is continuation of the status quo, attendance at substandard neighborhood schools, which leads to failed educations and failed lives. Continuation of the status quo could, in fact, be the most expensive option of all.