Race, Space, and Education

I’d like to bring up the issue of structural racism and “white flight” in the education system, in particular, how schools can be used as spaces to perpetuate social hierarchies and specific prejudices. I think my highschool is a good example of many of these issues. I went to a college preparatory school (UHS), which required students to do well on an admissions test in order to be admitted. The student body was overwhelmingly white, however, we shared a campus with a normal public school (RHS) which was overwhelmingly Latino / Chicana and also had a much higher percentage of black students. The two schools have often come into conflicts over things such as the bell schedule, which they want to adapt to fit their very different priorities. Many RHS students were having trouble passing the standardized test required for graduation in Arizona, and their administration wanted to tailor the schedule in a way that would give them extra time to prepare for the tests. It is frustrating to me to reflect back on how much animosity and resentment this proposition raised in my school. I got the overwhelming sense that UHS students believed that their needs should either come before those of the RHS students, or that their lives should, at the very least, not be affected by the other school. I’m disappointed that two student bodies (and administrations) seem unable to recognize the other group as their peers and equals, and make little attempt to work out ways to be mutually beneficial. I definitely feel like the blatant racial separation fostered implicit (and perhaps sometimes more explicit) prejudice on (and off) campus. Because we had a fairly high percentage of Asian-American students at my school, the model minority myth was also pretty widely propagated and accepted.

So . . .

I guess my questions are about what the system’s priorities should be, and how to balance meeting the needs of the students who are struggling while helping those who are excelling to continue to flourish (and of course ideally helping those who are struggling to excel as well). Where are the resources most needed, where can they do the most good, and where should we be investing them? Also, do schools like mine perpetuate white hegemony and segregation (and if so how do they and what are the implications)? By supporting “white flight” away from failing schools do programs like UHS’s take needed resources away from the schools that need them the most? My final question is pretty cynical, but does the government perhaps have some interest in keeping the system broken like this? In making sure that a very specific group of people have access to the best educational resources while others are continually denied them?