New Metropolis: Envisioning and Imagining Metropolitan Regional School Districts

• In Event: Reimagining Equitable Education Through Cross-Cultural Conversation: Toward an Equitable New Normal in the Era of Post-Pandemic

Abstract

U.S. metropolitan areas are racially diverse. But diversity disappears in the local school districts. The unity consciousness at the heart of all world religions calls out for expanding communication among groups and reducing inequality. The institution of local school districts generates racial inequality. Large U. S. metropolitan areas - Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Atlanta, St Louis, Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Baltimore, Denver, Pittsburgh, and Miami - are all racially diverse. This diversity disappears in local school districts, where racial segregation is the norm (U. S. Census, 2020; Cortright, 2020).
We can integrate our schools without crossing regional lines, but we cannot do so without crossing the old district lines. Most minority children in our metropolitan areas now attend segregated schools - and they are becoming increasingly segregated (Clotfelter 2004; Stroub and Richards, 2013; Fiel, 2013). Meanwhile, research shows that minority kids in integrated schools do significantly better than in segregated schools” (García, 2020).
The creation of metropolitan regional school districts could alleviate both funding inequalities and racial segregation, bringing children from all groups learning ‘under the same roof’ throughout the large metropolitan regions. This reorganization would address not only academic but also social learning. As was made clear in Brown v. Board, children from different groups cannot learn to be citizens of a multi-racial democracy unless they communicate and learn together. This demand cannot be met within the local school district framework.
Some would respond that racial integration had already been tried - without success. As Jonathan Kozol (2005) revealed, however, voluntary inter-district plans worked well and were broadly accepted, but were defunded by conservative state governors. Involuntary busing, on the other hand, roused fierce opposition that was widely reported in the media, creating the impression that school integration had failed. Past efforts were sabotaged for political gain.
This paper envisions metropolitan authorities for schools, similar to the established metropolitan transit authorities. New developments in transport technology may facilitate such a development. High-speed regional rail and autonomous vehicles will soon be available to get learners kids from all groups rapidly across metropolitan regions to learn together under the same roofs. With high speed 5G Internet, regional authorities and national educational providers can provide supplementary educational programming for inter-group real-time virtual learning spanning multiple local sites.
The elimination of local school districts in favor of metropolitan school authorities would require a new funding mechanism. The local school district property tax has always been unfair. Different local districts had different levels of taxable property; the poorest districts taxed their residents at higher rates yet still generated low funding per student, while the richer districts could tax at lower rates and provide twice as much funding per student - or more.
Under the envisioned metropolitan regional school funding plan all public schools could be funded by the State on an equitable basis and any child would be permitted to enroll in any school in the metropolitan area, broadening communication and greatly reducing inequality.

Author

• Leonard J. Waks, Temple University