"A Dream Deferred"

I have been and still am an ardent integrationist. That's why I'm so concerned about the desegregation suit in Hartford, Connecticut. The plaintiffs, a group of minority youngsters, accuse the state of Connecticut of denying them an equal opportunity for education because the Hartford schools are segregated.

There's no disputing that the Hartford schools, which are 90 percent African-American and Hispanic, are segregated. It's also true that children going to these schools are getting a much worse education than youngsters in the predominately white schools in neighboring districts. And it's no wonder that the Hartford youngsters and their parents have gotten angry and impatient waiting for the fulfillment, as they say, of a "dream deferred."

Unfortunately, the remedies being suggested have been tried already - and people had great hopes for them -- but they have not delivered. This time, I fear, not only will they fail to get us more integration and improved schools; they may succeed in destroying public education altogether and substituting a private school system segregated by race, class and religion.

One of the proposed remedies is to create one large school district out of Hartford and the surrounding suburbs and bus kids to integrate the schools. Another is to reorganize the state's 166 school districts into six mega-districts and to encourage voluntary integration within these districts.

In theory, one or the other of these plans could work. But in practice such plans have seldom been successful in integrating the schools. And when they have succeeded, they still have not raised the achievement level of poor minority youngsters -- which was the goal of integration in the first place. Maybe for once we should take the direct approach and concentrate on improving the schools.

What people want, first and foremost, whether they are white or African-American or Hispanic, are quality neighborhood public schools. The only reason parents consider sending children elsewhere is to get something far better than they can get locally. New York City's District 4 schools, which are located in Spanish Harlem, are a case in point. They show, first of all, that poor neighborhoods can have high-achieving public schools. And they show that when such schools exist, parents from all over will try to send their children there - will even take them out of private school to do so. In District 4, integration is a by-product of excellence rather than the other way around, and it can be in other places, too.

This is not an easy option to pursue. Lifting up poor schools required people with creative ideas and the energy, determination and money to carry them out. The community has to give consistent support to the effort and so must the local and state governments. But this plan will work, and the other remedies under consideration, even though they are well-intentioned, have not worked before and are unlikely to do so now. What they are likely to do is create a lot of political conflict that will divert everybody's attention from educational issues.

A recent poll asked Hartford citizens how they would respond if their child was forced to change schools: 51 percent of whites said they would move or take the child out of public schools. So did 45 percent of Hispanics and 23 percent of African-Americans. We have no idea whether people would follow through on this. Nevertheless, the figures suggest that large numbers would oppose either legislation creating mega-districts or court-ordered busing, and this opposition could lead to the kind of political conflict we've seen over the years in other cities where desegregation plans were enacted. It could also lead to something much worse.

When New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez proposed his Rainbow Curriculum, the aim was to encourage children to be tolerant. But many people objected strongly to the idea of teaching first-graders about gays and lesbians in order to be tolerant of them, and they rose to defeat Fernandez and his curriculum. Now, members of right wing groups are entering school board politics and may well be elected. Fernandez wanted to strike a blow for tolerance, but the result is likely to be a victory for intolerance.

Similarly, in Connecticut, legislation or a court order in favor of desegregation might lead people who oppose desegregation plans to insist on "choice" for parents and on passing a voucher bill that would allow parents to use public money to send their kids to private schools. This would do nothing to improve public schools, and the private education system that was created would be more rigidly segregated than anything we have now.

There's not question that the aims of the Hartford suit are desirable, but given the experience we've had over the past 20 years, are they likely to succeed or to further the very evils they are trying to overcome?