great. i'm going to my parents' house this weekend. check out the shit that's flying out in omaha.
now, i'm sure all of this looks bad from the outside. but i'm familiar with the workings of the omaha school system, and i'm going to put in my two cents on the matter.
the omaha city school system, not the "rich" suburban schools in the millard district, has the best high school in the region, central high school. read the wikipedia description. my parents MADE SURE my sister was bused to central high school, which has the best teachers and the best AP program. my parents are obsessed with education. the millard school district just didn't cut it academically. and the other high schools in the omaha public school system weren't all that great either. to my parents, the academic programs at the other high schools weren't rigorous enough, and the students were lazy. the millard buildings looked nice, and the students had nice cars, but the atmosphere was too relaxed and leisurely. the other high schools in the omaha system were also crappy. my parents wanted to live in the nice western omaha neighborhoods, but they didn't want to put my sister in a mediocre high school, so they demanded that my sister was bused to the city, specifically central high school.
here is a photo of central students. central high school is located in the yellow region, where the population is mostly comprised of african americans.
(also, check out omaha north, also in the yellow region.)
perhaps the african american congressman wanted the best programs for the people he represented. why share resources with other schools when your school has the best program? yes. that's right. the best program just happens to be in the "inner city."
this isn't about segregation as we know it at all. this is about allocating resources, and the african american congressman didn't want to share the wealth with the stupid kids out west. :) let's call it "reverse segregation."
as to the millard parent that was quoted, what an idiot. he obviously puts a premium of social snobbery over education, so fuck him. he's stupid, and he wants his kids to be stupid. there are parents like my mother (and my ex's parents) who want the option of busing their kids to central high, so they won't be stupid. (and the other option is spending over $10k a year on bromwell talbot, a private school.)
KEEP BUSING for crying out loud!
anyway, things aren't what they seem...
Monday, April 17, 2006
hm...
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2 comments:
dude -- this was a _great_ post.
hold on... one more thing... i think that although the lines are going to be drawn across racial lines, the taxes will be spread evenly across all the districts as well (including millard and westside). i read it quickly. i'm going to read it again but i'm trying to burn through some documents at work.
so i think the city schools are going to be funded in part by the rich suburbanites.
oh my god, if that is true, that's brilliant. HAHAHAHAH!!!! if you want to play racial / class politics, i think the african americans in omaha just made out like bandits.
more money and better schools just for them.
is there something i'm just not getting? i mean, i had a discussion at work with a friend who took race, ethnicity and the law, and he said that some high income white folks will actually take losses to avoid places with a large percentage of minorities.
giving up the opportunity to go to a better school just so you can be with "your own kind" seems really stupid to me.
could this be happening here? am i totally off track?
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