Separate but equal? (long) I spent a wonderful evening Thursday watching my nephew graduate from Raleigh Charter High School. For those not familiar with RCHS, it is one of the premier public high schools in the country, consistently ranked in the top 25 or so in the US. As a state-supported charter school, anyone in the school district can apply to attend, and there is no tuition. Admission is basically by lottery. The speeches by students and faculty were witty and insightful. The musical performances were spirited and lyrical, especially the rendition of the Beatles song “In My Life” that featured my nephew. Truly, these graduates are the “best and brightest” of our district, and many of them are headed to the finest universities in the southeast and beyond. On this joyous night, one hundred and twenty-seven high school students became graduates. Four of these students were African American; two were Hispanic. For comparison, twenty-one percent of the county is black, and ten percent is Hispanic. That is not to say there was not diversity in the Class of 2013; there were a number of Asian, South-East Asian, and other ethnic groups represented. And I do not mean to imply that the school or the school district is discriminating against these two minority groups in the admission process. The lottery process is as fair as it can be, and by all accounts the teachers and staff are committed to the success of all of the students. Still, I find it troubling to see two groups that together represent nearly one-third of the local population so under-represented in this elite institution. Why should this be? Do the parents of black and Hispanic students feel their children will not succeed or be happy at this type of institution? Does the need for the families to provide their own transportation present too much of a barrier? Perhaps students from low-performing elementary and middle schools (where disproportionately large percentages of African American and Latino students attend) are “taught” that they are not smart enough to undertake an advanced course of study in high school. Certainly, the policy of giving priority to siblings of current students and to children of faculty members (who, judging by the representatives on the stage Thursday were almost entirely white) will ensure that the demographics will change slowly, if at all. The divisions of class and race that I saw Thursday were painful and disheartening. I wish I had an easy answer, or even some insightful commentary, but I don’t. All I have is an uneasy feeling that something is badly wrong with this picture.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:03:16 +0000
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