What if rich kids could have their own schools without their parents having to pay private school tuition? That's the dream being pursued by a higher-income area of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, where there's a
push to secede from a public education system that encompasses poorer, and therefore lower-performing, neighborhoods. When it comes to funding disparities among school districts, Louisiana:
... scored worst in the nation, according to the study. A December report by three LSU economics professors found that breaking up the East Baton Rouge Parish school system would depress total per-pupil spending to $8,870 from $9,635. It would rise to $11,686 in the breakaway district.
Eighty percent of the current district’s students are black, and 82 percent poor enough to qualify for free or reduced school meals. Nyman and other district boosters say a split would set a dire precedent.
“Every affluent community in the state will want to create their own little school system,” said Carnell Washington, president of the East Baton Rouge Federation of Teachers.“They are taking money away that would help the entire school system and the entire city.”
Baton Rouge was under a desegregation order until 2007. Less than seven years after it was lifted, this push to peel off a richer, whiter school district gained steam. There have been similar efforts in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. Good thing we live in such a self-evidently post-racial society, right?