In Virginia I was bused past old, dilapidated and poorly equipped schools for black students to new or newly remodeled schools for whites. Later, I saw many of my students, black and white, bused well outside their neighborhoods to achieve racial balance. The court-ordered busing effectively reduced the bond between black and white parents, schools and their neighborhoods.
The first flood of Virginia's white migration to academies was to escape desegregation, while today academies are viewed by many economically able parents, black and white, as college preparatory and a shelter from the low-performing, Godless and raucous public schools.
The controversy over diversity and neighborhood schools only adds to the perception of dysfunctional schools and is merely the latest in the battle for funding of public or private education and who will control the school system. The consequence is that the average test scores and graduation rates drop as the more motivated parents and their children flee to private schools.
