A District

Over half a century post-Brown v. Board, significant racial including Mounds View schools. School zoning ordinances split Irondale — and feeder schools — containing a significantly larger and Hispanic students contine to fall behind white students academically spread, we seek to uncover what has perpetuated this racial segregation] gets ignored for ‘simple’ answers like ‘more funding equals better schools’ or ‘desegregation always means improved learning…’” said Justin Benolkin, social studies teacher. schools segregated after the Brown v. Board decision as it indirectly segregated schools and was, therefore, completely legal. This “de facto” segregation can be seen in school districts across the U.S.

Designing an integration program that addresses a variety of issues and meets the needs of all students requires a thoughtful, careful approach. True integration cannot be achieved without effort from students, parents and educators of all backgrounds.

Sometimes, however, district rezoning was used as a tool to promote integration rather than protest it. In the mid-1980s, Mounds View School District was planning to redraw the district lines to integrate the racially and economically divided district. District officials proposed dividing the Mounds ViewIrondale split between north and south rather than the current east-west divide by sending students who lived above Highway 694 to Irondale and those south of it to Mounds View. However, Mounds View High School parents who did not want to send their children to the lower-ranked Irondale objected to this proposal. Eventually, the county decided to submit to the uproar and keep the current district lines, which partially explains why the Mounds View district remains segregated today.

To counteract the disparities of funding, open enrollment, an increasingly common practice in America, was initiated in schools throughout Minnesota in 1988. Open enrollment allows students to attend schools that are not within their resident district. In other words, in an effort to avoid the prejudice of district rezoning, students can find enrollment in public schools outside their district.

However, although the intentions were there to aid desegregation, open enrollment turned out to be the vassal for the op- posite. Open enrollment often enabled segregation-increasing actions such as white flight, as white families could move their kids out of urban districts containing a high minority population to wealthier, suburban districts. This includes the Mounds View School District, although not nearly to the extreme of some other districts in America.

With a historical theme of impediments thwarting the goal of integration in school districts all over the country, the key to an equitable education for every student could lay within examining policymakers’ efforts and increased awareness involving such inequalities.

I