School Transfer Policy Change Hurts Students

School communities have a unique opportunity to teach students a great deal outside the curricula. Schools have a unique opportunity and responsibility to teach democracy, providing equal access to knowledge and opportunity. Schools cannot do this by talking about equity, justice for all and equal opportunity. They can do this only by example, by creating an institution that boldly confronts the very inequalities that threaten to undermine our society.

Last spring, when the board of the Huntington Beach Union High School District amended an ethnic-balance policy designed to preserve ethnic diversity in schools, I am afraid they sent a strong message--that even within a diverse community, schools will sanction the concept of separate but equal. They cloak it in a cry for freedom, for choice, when in reality it is simply institutional discrimination, allowing some families one last chance to avoid having their children educated with second-language learners and/or students of color.

At the center of this controversy is Ocean View High School, a school that reflects the changing demographics of Orange County. In a student enrollment of 1,594, 58.6% are minorities, with the largest grouping Latino. The school community has been grappling with the changing demographics for several years, deciding how best to integrate English language learners into a rigorous academic curriculum, how to help students from diverse backgrounds learn side-by-side, and how to ensure that all learners are supported in a way that maximizes potential.

Unfortunately, some families decided to move their students from Ocean View because of these issues. This flight left Ocean View with its lowest enrollment in years. In 1993, the district met this challenge with a policy that attempted to lead the community into accepting an increasingly diverse population, providing students structures to learn to live with one another in a rich mixture of races, ethnic groups, languages and religions. The policy limited white student transfers when a school’s white population--excluding Latinos--fell below 50%.

The board’s recent decision to amend the 1993 policy to a 36% white population limit has validated the desire of many families to move their students from Ocean View for the 1999-2000 school year. This decision has left the students, faculty and staff at Ocean View feeling that their efforts to create a truly rich academic environment for all students has been negated by the board. The new policy does not preserve ethnic balance; it is certainly not a reflection of the diversity of Orange County or the United States in the coming century.

The change in policy does not lead to an atmosphere of racial unity and understanding; it does not challenge us to embrace the issues involved in education or face the real questions a changing community must face. But most important, it does not lead our youth into the new century; rather, it is reactive decision-making going back to a time of segregation, actually encouraging thoughts of “separate but equal.”

In amending the policy, the board and district administration failed to take a position of leadership and failed to provide a model of inclusion or even engage the citizenry in a dialogue on diversity in a community that is increasingly diverse in economic status, race, ethnicity, language and religion. I look to my local school board and district administration to make choices that will benefit the greater community. I particularly look to my district administrators to work in the best interest of all students rather than cloak unethical decisions in the mantle of caring and providing choice. I must ask, choice for whom? Those students with transportation who can drive across town to the school with fewer minorities?

In an odd twist of rhetoric, the proponents of the amendment cite racial freedom and equality as their motive. But can that be the case when the result is a school where minority students are made to feel others do not want to be educated alongside them? Are the proponents of the amendment harming their children by removing them from the particular challenges and unique opportunities a diverse school population provides? These questions must be discussed.

If this decision, made on the backs of children, is an effort to convince citizens of Huntington Beach to vote for a bond issue, I am afraid the decision makers underestimate the desire of the majority of citizens in Huntington Beach to do what is right by all children. I would not hesitate to vote yes on a school bond issue if the district is one that I can respect. We simply cannot return to the days before Brown vs. Board of Education.