Copyright 1993 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc. St.
Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
July 17, 1993, SATURDAY, FIVE STAR Edition
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 6B
LENGTH: 370 words
HEADLINE:
SPECIALIZED SEGREGATION
BODY: Nearly
40 years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the doctrine of separate but
equal in public schools, the issue is still bouncing around the courts. The
latest decision highlights a particularly tough question: Can parents who want a
separate school to deal with special problems expect tax money to pay for it?
New York state's highest court said no, but the issues of the case are not about
to go away. In 1989, responding to a request by Hasidic Jews in the village of
Kiryas Joel, the New York Legislature set up a special
tax-supported school district for handicapped children. The parents had
not wanted to send their children to regular public schools for religious
reasons. But by a vote of 4-2, the New York Court of Appeals struck down the
plan last week. Judge George Bundy Smith said the move to "insulate" the Jewish
students "inescapably conveys a message of governmental endorsement of
religion." With religion involved, the answer to the separate-school dilemma may
seem clear. But what about other cases of special schools supported with public
money? Schools for black males, Hispanics, gays and other groups have been
proposed or begun. Supporters often say such arrangements are a last-ditch
attempt to teach students who have failed to thrive in a regular classroom
setting. Opponents criticize such efforts on two grounds. First, they are an
unwelcome return to the segregation that governments have tried to wipe out for
nearly four decades; second, public money is best used for programs that benefit
everyone, not members of any particular group to the exclusion of all others.
Specialized schools are nothing new. In desegregation programs, magnet schools
have been particularly helpful in attracting white students to attend
predominantly black urban districts. But those schools are organized by
specialized academics, a classification more appropriate for education than
race, religion, sex or other categories. Public schools are designed to help
create a common culture, not to emphasize and aggravate divisions. Those
divisions exist, and they must be acknowledged and addressed. But fragmenting
public schools into specialized segments is the wrong approach to take.
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