My husband and I watched the 4/8/14 meeting of the Iowa City Community School District Board of Directors. It was so interesting I wished I'd taped it, so I taped that meeting the next morning, 4/9, and watched it at the same time. However, the rerun this morning was of the 3/25/14 board meeting. That was interesting too, but I hope the 4/8/14 meeting will also appear in reruns. It should.
In the 3/25/14 meeting, I noticed the extremely divergent views of two speakers on the diversity policy. Jason T. Lewis, former candidate for the school board, is all for the diversity policy. In fact, he and Aaron Gillespie accuse many members of the community, including board members, of trying the policy in the court of public opinion instead of giving the policy a fair hearing.
On the other hand, Pam Mahdi [sp.?] of Breckenridge Lane said that at the diversity meeting she attended, "it was absolutely clear that the majority of the 200 plus parents from all walks of life do not support the diversity policy and its implementation as it currently stands.
". . . These are students, children, not mere numbers to be rearranged in an experiment with unproven [outcomes]." She also alleged that the principal and the president of the Parent Teacher Organization of one of the two schools being helped complained that they had not been consulted about redistricting. They don't want their kids bused to other schools. They want their kids to stay in their own school in their own neighborhood.
Jason T. Lewis denied the Iowa City Press-Citizen's apparent assertion that the diversity policy is driving the new redistricting. He said, "We all know that's not true."
Do we?
Jason added, "The [diversity] policy is not designed to split up neighborhoods . . . ."
However, in the real world, Jason, enforcing the diversity policy splits up neighborhoods. Splitting up neighborhoods affects children from all walks of life, even if negative consequences are not the intent. Lord knows the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Costs increase with increased busing. The district can't afford additional costs when it is spending so much money on duplicate services and staff already. Schools that children can walk or bike to like Hoover Elementary School are being arbitrarily closed with schools being moved out to the suburbs, which can't help but have an injurious effect on thriving inner-city communities now bonded with and involved in Hoover.
The City of Iowa City, of course, created the problem of building subsidized housing in southeast Iowa City. Former Mayor Ernie Lehman told me that the land was cheaper in southeast Iowa City because it was flatter, so they decided to build low-income housing projects south of Highway 6. He said that it was a mistake because of increased violence in southeast Iowa City elementary schools that he was made aware of by a third-grade teacher.
Iowa City shows no enthusiasm for fixing the problem it caused. The Iowa City Council, which includes a lawyer, at least two wealthy entrepreneurs, a MidAmerican executive, a physician, and a progressive professor who unfortunately doesn't stand up for his own beliefs against the overwhelming majority who oppose him, shows no inclination to tilt away from its elitism and disregard bordering on contempt for fair bidding, a minimum of Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) for the rich, and following its own environmental laws regarding sensitive areas (new building of condos on the hills near Hickory Hill Park).
Just how many costly acrobatics is the school district willing to perform to create the diversity that the city should have created itself with scattered housing sites instead of projects? Isn't there case law regarding the solution of a lack of diversity in the school district by busing? Can you really solve segregation by busing school children hither and thither? Seems to me at least one federal judge ruled on that at some point.
Someone should ask the district's legal beagle to look up the legality of desegregation by busing before more money is spent on the process.
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The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?