成人抖阴

By the time two police officers dragged a young Bernie Sanders away from a 1963 protest in Chicago, America鈥檚 civil rights movement was in full swing.

Sanders, then a 21-year-old student at the University of Chicago, was for resisting officers at a demonstration challenging racial segregation in one of America鈥檚 largest public school districts. Nearly a decade before, the Supreme Court had ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in America鈥檚 schools was unconstitutional. In the more than 65 years since the Brown decision, integration has been hamstrung by public resistance and several subsequent Court rulings.

But the issue is re-emerging as a top concern for policymakers. And Sanders, now a 78-year-old senator from Vermont, has made school desegregation the top K-12 issue in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

His education platform, released a day after 叠谤辞飞苍鈥檚 65th anniversary and dubbed the Thurgood Marshall Plan for a Quality Public Education for All, seeks to pump $1 billion in federal money to magnet schools as a way to promote racial integration. The schools, which in the 1970s, often offer specialized programs such as arts education to entice white families to enroll their children in integrated settings. The Sanders plan would provide nearly 10 times the current level of federal investment in magnet schools.

Though Sanders鈥檚 call to curtail the growth of charter schools has won him both applause and harsh criticism, his plan to significantly bolster federal investment in magnet schools, another form of school choice, has largely gone under the radar. The magnet schools plan is thin on details, and his campaign didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment.

Richard Kahlenberg, director of K-12 equity at The Century Foundation, said he was encouraged to see school integration re-emerge as a leading education topic among Democratic presidential contenders following 鈥渄ecades of dormancy.鈥� The Sanders plan 鈥渟tuck in my mind as dramatic,鈥� he said, after years in which many policymakers viewed the campuses as an antiquated 鈥�1980s concept.鈥�

Yet roughly 4,300 magnet schools educate about nationally, making them a leading form of public school choice and a primary lever to promote integration. They have as more politically palatable than court-enforced mandates like busing.

Kahlenberg is a leading proponent of magnet schools and has to double federal spending on them to roughly $210 million.

鈥淪anders would take that even further,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a healthy development.鈥�

Support for magnet school programs, however, is far from universal, with some arguing they don鈥檛 adequately combat segregation and others challenging the value of integration outright. Others have questioned whether the schools are truly open to all children. Earlier this year, for example, a magnet school program in Hartford, Connecticut 鈥� lauded by Kahlenberg and other researchers as a national model 鈥� survived a lawsuit alleging that it relies on an unconstitutional 鈥渞acial quota鈥� to the detriment of the city鈥檚 black students.

Segregation 鈥榟asn鈥檛 happened by accident鈥�

Though Sanders鈥檚 resistance to racial segregation dates back decades, his presidential bid has so far . That includes those in South Carolina, where he last May. On Super Tuesday, Sanders got just in the state. Meanwhile, former vice president Joe Biden, who faced criticism early in the campaign because , has emerged as a leading Democratic contender with . Biden and Sanders are fighting it out for the top spot in a narrowing Democratic field as voters in six more states go to the polls Tuesday.

During the South Carolina rally, Sanders characterized school integration 鈥� by both race and socioeconomics 鈥� as an urgent problem, noting that America鈥檚 predominantly white school districts get roughly $23 billion more in funding than those in which students of color make up the majority.

Persistent school segregation 鈥渉asn鈥檛 happened by accident鈥� but rather is the 鈥渄irect result of policy decisions made in the courts and state legislatures and in Washington, D.C.,鈥� Sanders . 鈥淲e cannot tolerate separate and unequal schools.鈥�

The Sanders desegregation plan is ambitious and calls for federal lawmakers to triple funding for Title I, the primary federal investment in high-poverty schools. It also gives a position of renewed importance to federal courts, pledging to 鈥渆xecute and enforce desegregation orders and appoint federal judges who will enforce the 1964 Civil Rights Act in school systems.鈥� In the decades since Brown, the Supreme Court has significantly curtailed desegregation plans, including those that require integration across school district borders. Most recently, in 2007, the court struck down school assignment plans in Seattle and Louisville that considered the race of individual students when creating integrated campuses.

However, the court found that efforts to avoid racial isolation are a compelling government interest and permitted policies that promote diversity that don鈥檛 explicitly weigh the race of individual students.

Magnet schools that promote diversity were designed as one weapon in the fight against school segregation, though research on their efficacy is mixed. A 2015 American Institutes for Research study on found that converting low-performing campuses with large shares of minority children to magnet schools reduced racial segregation but didn鈥檛 affect the concentration of low-income students. But at high-performing, predominantly white campuses, converting to magnet schools didn鈥檛 affect the concentration of students of color.

Meanwhile, a in the Journal of School Choice found little evidence that magnet schools boost academic achievement.

Given the variation in magnet schools nationally, Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation said he supports the Sanders plan with one caveat: 鈥渟o long as the program includes some tough accountability provisions to ensure that magnet schools will in fact produce economic and racial integration.鈥�

Todd Mann, executive director of Magnet Schools of America, a trade group, shared a similar view. Though the 鈥渄evil is always in the details鈥� and Sanders has offered few details on his magnet schools proposal, Mann said, large cities across the country have relied on such schools to promote integration.

Rebecca Sibilia, founder and CEO of EdBuild, a think tank focused on school funding equity, is skeptical. Because school segregation often exists between school districts, she said, the Sanders plan fails to address the root cause of the problem. Rather than using magnet schools to encourage white students to attend classrooms in predominantly black schools, she urged a more politically divisive solution: Redraw school district boundaries in a way that creates equity.

鈥淪ure, we should have more magnet schools,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not the systematic fix that our education system precisely needs right now.鈥�

In Hartford, a model

Though magnet schools exist in most states, advocates often point to the program in Hartford, Connecticut, one of America鈥檚 poorest cities, as a success story. The Hartford region built a network of 41 high-performing magnet schools to promote integration after the state Supreme Court ruled in 1996 that racial segregation between Hartford schools and those in the more affluent suburbs violated the state constitution. The remedy includes the magnet schools and a program that allows Hartford children to attend suburban schools. Hartford鈥檚 magnet schools stand out from those in other cities because they draw students from multiple school systems, promoting integration across district borders.

Today, about half of Hartford students attend integrated schools, said Martha Stone, founder and executive director of the Center for Children鈥檚 Advocacy and an attorney who represented parents in the state desegregation suit. In January, plaintiffs and the state reached a settlement that expands the program and reforms how enrollment spots are awarded to students. Most significantly, Stone said, state officials agreed to devise a plan by 2022 to provide integrated schools to all students who want to attend them. In years past, demand has far exceeded supply.

That settlement also satisfied plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit, which argued that the program relied on an unconstitutional 鈥渞acial quota鈥� to enroll students. A found that some black and Latino students were denied seats in order to maintain racial diversity on the campuses while a state-run lottery system gave a leg up to white and Asian applicants at campuses that struggled to attract them. The new plan adopts a lottery system based on students鈥� socioeconomic status. Oftentimes, people 鈥済et hung up鈥� on race, but it鈥檚 important to recognize that magnet schools help alleviate the concentration of low-income students in schools because race and poverty are often correlated, Stone said.

But magnet schools in Connecticut have faced harsh criticism, including from parents who argue that they create a 鈥渢wo-tiered鈥� system in which some students have access to the high-performing campuses while others remain trapped in struggling traditional public schools. Others have argued against integration altogether.

Among the critics is Gwen Samuel, founder and president of the Connecticut Parents Union, which filed a lawsuit against the state鈥檚 magnet school scheme. Rather than encouraging integration, she said, education leaders should focus their energy on improving educational outcomes within Connecticut鈥檚 traditional public schools.

鈥淚鈥檓 concerned they鈥檙e using our magnet schools as a way to force integration, and I don鈥檛 think you should be forcing integration,鈥� Samuel said. 鈥淚t can happen organically with quality structures, period.鈥�

Chris Stewart, a charter school proponent and CEO of brightbeam, a “nonprofit network of education activists,” questioned whether magnet school enrollment is truly open to all students. Pointing to Hartford, he argued that the schools are allowed to 鈥渄iscriminate on the basis of race, test scores and perceived ability, talent and capacity.鈥� For example, he said, auditions to attend a magnet school that is centered on music education could be subjective.

But he also questioned whether integration can be achieved.

鈥淗istory has told us time and time again that if white people wanted to integrate, they would have done it already,鈥� Stewart said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 need inducements to make it happen. The problem with integration is not that Bernie Sanders hasn鈥檛 spent a billion dollars trying to make it happen yet.鈥�

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