The Greatest Good

As a first-day intern at Education Sector with minimal background experience in the field of education policy, yesterday’s Center for American Progress/Century Foundation forum on “The Future of School Integration” offered me an interesting glimpse into the current state of debate about school integration. Most of the panelists, including John Brittain (a veteran civil rights attorney), Susan Eaton (research director at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School whose recently published book served as the fulcrum for the panel discussion), Richard Kahlenberg (author and Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation), and Cynthia Brown (Director of Education Policy at the Center for American Progress), agreed that, while racial integration remains a important goal, the current legal climate requires a shift of focus and tactics away from race to emphasize the need for socioeconomic integration.

The dissenter from this consensus was Rick Hess, a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, who, in his accustomed role as devil’s advocate, argued that parents in middle-class schools will resist socio-economic integration efforts—not because they’re heartless racists or elitists, but simply because efforts to bring more low-income children into their schools conflict with what middle-class parents view as their interests in a zero-sum game.

The concerns Hess suggested these parents might have—that problems typically associated with majority low-income schools (disruptive behavior in the classroom, violence, negative peer influence, etc.) will simply travel with the kids, or that the presence of children whose previous, underperforming schools have not prepared them to perform at grade level will damage instruction for other children—are valid. And, for the most part, the other panelists failed to address what I conider the strongest argument against the concerns voiced by Mr. Hess: the utilitarian benefit of socioeconomic integration.

Studies suggest that children from low-income families perform better in majority middle-class schools than their counterparts in majority low-income schools, with no noticeable detriment to the middle-class students they are placed among. If socioeconomic integration produces the same results at scale, then the ultimate result of more socioeconomic integration programs would be a better educated workforce, a more robust economy, less intergenerational poverty, and an overall stronger America. Obviously, there’s no guarantee of such results, but the potential returns for the nation as a whole seem to outweigh the narrow concerns of self-interested parents— particularly since studies also suggest little negative impact to middle-class children from socioeconomic integration.

Regardless of appeals to utilitarian principles, however, many middle-class parents will still mount political opposition to socioeconomic integration plans for the reasons Hess mentioned. So what’s the solution? Well, as Mr. Hess himself pointed out, the first step is to not demonize those parents for feeling the way they do. Their concerns, from their perspective, are valid, and an approach dismissive of those concerns will only lead to acrimony. Their fears must be allayed, and as another panelist, Mr. Khalenberg, pointed out, the only way to do that is with assurances that a strict disciplinary scheme will be sewn into any integration strategy. Parents being asked to accept a socioeconomic integration plan have to know that their children’s education will not be undermined by repeat student offenders gifted with an unlimited number of chances.

Those parents also have to know that children coming from underperforming schools and dysfunctional homes will not simply be dropped into middle-class schools and left to their own devices. A support structure of counselors and engaged teachers and administrators should also be in place within schools to lend guidance and encouragement, which would not only benefit the children coming from low-income schools, but their middle-income classmates as well. Children from middle-income families would also reap the benefits of the greater influx of tax dollars coming into their schools behind their new classmates, money that could be used to refurbish facilities like gyms and libraries.

All of this takes a certain degree of political will to invest the necessary resources and engage in the oversight needed to make sure the job is done right. Undoubtedly many parents would still have doubts, and some might even still oppose the plans, but many would probably see the effort being expended and appreciate it enough to at least give it a chance.