Growing Up in the South, 3 « Diane Ravitch's blog

Growing Up in the South, 3 « Diane Ravitch's blog:

Growing Up in the South, 3

by dianerav

I posted two other reminiscences of growing up in the South in the years before the Brown decision was implemented. I reiterate that I am not suggesting that there is less segregation today than there was in the 1950s; there may be even more. But so much was qualitatively different, and I find it valuable to recall what the qualitative differences were. There were no black mayors or Congressmen, no blacks on television or in the films. All public (and private) facilities in the South were segregated. I could go on, but I’ll save that for another time.

My take on segregation comes from being an English child brought to America to escape WW!!. Fourth grade in the Aiken, S. C. public school was about 2 years behind my London County Council school near Edgeware Road. No, I was the right color. I just

The Philadelphia Solution: Go Broke

by dianerav

Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission has decided that the best way to address its looming deficit is to increase it. With each new charter approved by the SRC, the public schools lose $7,000. The latest estimate is that the public schools will transfer over $139 million in the next five years to new charters. With the plan drafted by the Boston Consulting Group, the SRC is well on its way to putting public education out of business in Philadelphia by transferring public assets to private hands.