EDUCATION BEYOND POLITICS
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competent to assess schools. Certain parents do, and many parents don 't.
And what happens when they opt for a school that subsequently goes
out of business? What happens to these schools? And to the children? We
all wanted to integrate our schools, didn't we? And the effect of the
proposed voucher system will be re-segregation. Inevitably, the result will
be polarization, and as yet unforseeable problems.
AI Shanker:
We've had a lot of all-black schools for a long, long time,
and some of those were divided along sex lines. There's no evidence that
during the period of segregation we produced outstanding students.
Somebody's got to tell me what's going to be different about these
proposed schools from the ones that existed in 1935.
Ronald Radosh:
They claim they didn't have the funding or the
equipment. They say that with full funding they'll be as good as any
other schools.
Abigail Thernstrorn:
There were plenty of black role models in Jim
Crow schools.
Jean Elshtain:
At the moment, some feminists argue for all-female
schools. There is a difference between segregation that is totally imposed
by the outside and efforts to resegregate. I think we should look at
what's prompting people to resegregate . I think it's a defensive maneuver
because they think their kids aren't being taught well. Some if it is due
to ideology. We've got to learn how to distinguish these situations.
AI Shanker:
In some cases it's not ideological but threats of peer pres–
sure. It doesn 't have to be ideological, it just needs to be threatening.
Jean Elshtain:
Part of what happens resu lted from the fact that some
black mothers didn't like busing but cou ld not do anything about it.
What's more, they no longer were active in parent/teacher organizations
in their kids' schools. By having four kids in different schools, often all
over town , they couldn't be actively involved. At the college level
you've got to ass ume that kids are capable of managing without being
totally tied into one particular group. Therefore, it's a pity when cur–
riculum, faculty, and resources get directed towards what I call identity
politics, totally confined by our race, gender, and so on.
William Phillips:
Don 't you think that the national ethos is involved?
In France, for example, you didn 't have to have committees to set up
programs for the schools - we're not talking about universities at the
