Divide: "Race-Neutral" School Rezoning With Racially Inequitable Results

• In Event: Understanding the Changing Relationships Between School Attendance Boundaries and Student Populations

Abstract

Objective:
This conceptual paper will illustrate the centrality of race in contemporary K12 school rezoning, despite largely race-neutral policies, processes and politics associated with it.

Guiding Concepts:
The rise of colorblind law and policymaking in education (Anderson, 2007; Wells, 2014) makes it harder to confront racism in school rezoning. A prolonged court struggle over race-conscious educational policies continues. “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” said Chief Justice Roberts, striking down districts’ race-conscious desegregation policies (PICS, 2007). Years later, in dissent, Justice Sotomayor wrote, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination” (Schuette, 2014).

The move toward colorblind law shapes local policymaking and likely influences how stakeholders dialogue about race during rezoning processes--and how leaders respond. Bonilla-Silva’s Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework examines how race, law and power operate in contemporary society in a colorblind way to mask and justify racial inequality (Bonilla-Silva, 2015); we draw on that by exploring concepts related to race and school rezoning. Critically-oriented scholars argue racism is permanent and pervasive. Color-blindness also serves as a frame to explain the failures of desegregation (Revilla et al., 2004; Dumas, 2011) and the mechanisms through which schools—as a function of the state—“ha[ve] played in reproducing inequality and creating an uneven playing field’’ (Kelley, 1997, p. 92). School rezoning also engages concepts related to race and place, as altering attendance boundaries maps on to the geography of inequality (Butler & Sinclair, 2020; Holzman, 2012; Rothstein, 2017; Soja, 2010).

Preliminary Findings:
Extant literature and emerging findings from a series of new studies illustrates that though race often operates as a subtext of school rezoning processes, rezoning politics and outcomes revolve around racial injustice. A “color-blind” school rezoning approach upholds structural advantages that reproduce educational inequality by protecting White racial identity and white families’ interests, while problematizing schools attended largely by students of color and economically disadvantaged students.

In our work, these colorblind attitudes are evidenced in school rezoning:
o literature that theorizes little around race, particularly white interests;
o critical methods that do not interrogate race beyond measures of segregation (see, e.g., Horsford, 2018);
o policy that excludes anti-racist criteria, such as equitable access to resources and integrated educational opportunities, yet includes priorities that can exacerbate segregation like “man-made boundaries,” “established communities,” or family convenience (walkability, ride times);
o processes that privilege voices of those with political/social capital; and
o public comments using proxies for race such as school culture, proximity, and a (racialized) sense of place to reject more integrative plans.
As a core responsibility of local school boards, rezoning presents an ongoing opportunity to impact the K12 experience for many students. This paper will foster better understanding of the racial dynamics at play within rezoning processes, policies and politics, to help break through boundaries of racialized inequity.

Authors

• Genevieve Parker Siegel-Hawley, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Kim Bridges, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Andrene Castro, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Erica Frankenberg, The Pennsylvania State University

• Kendra Taylor, The Pennsylvania State University