"We Owe Them Nothing": Civic Capacity and School Desegregation in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area

• In Event: 34.050 - Boundaries and Borders: The Political and Social Context of Segregation and Spatial Inequality

Abstract

The dual-transfer program in St. Louis, created in 1983, provides Black students from the city with free transportation to suburban schools. In 1999, peak enrollment reached almost 15,000 students. Following a 1999 court order making the program voluntary and lowering tuition payments, participation fell to approximately 7,000 students by 2009. Using the civic capacity framework and a media framing analysis on almost 100 newspaper articles written between 1999 and 2009, this study aims to investigate the civic capacity, or the different levels of support of public education by various policy actors, existing in the suburban districts around school desegregation and equity. This is especially important given the continued extension of the program juxtaposed against drastically reduced numbers of available seats.

Author

• Ain A. Grooms, The University of Iowa