White Students

A decade ago, Howard County had four schools in which white students were a minority, and two with majority African-American enrollments. Now, there are 27 schools with white minorities, and just one with a majority black student body. What's going on? "Twenty years ago, when we talked about diversity, we were talking about a white/African-American comparison," said county school Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin. "Today we have students from over 80 different nations." While white enrollment dipped between 1997 and 2007, black, Asian and Hispanic enrollments increased sharply, especially outside Columbia, where racial diversity had arrived earlier.

Emphasizing that they are seeking a partnership with Maryland, not a confrontation, officials from the Office of Civil Rights told state education officials yesterday that they expect to have a final agreement on desegregation signed by the end of September. "I think this is good news today," Patricia S. Florestano, the state secretary of higher education, said after the three-hour meeting with federal officials in Annapolis. "They told us instead of setting goals for us that ... we can write our own plan and set our own goals."

A fight over racial slurs led to the arrest of three Glenelg High School students last week and prompted two days of dialogue between black and white students on racial issues.Hundreds of students had gathered to see the after-school fight, which occurred in a vacant wooded lot on Sharp Road. Police and teachers helped break it up.Police charged a white male student with assault Tuesday after he allegedly pushed a teacher trying to break up the inter-racial fight among nine students.Police arrested two black male students the next day, charging them with possession of weapons.

A recent article in The Sun by staff writer Lan Nguyen focused on the preponderance of school suspensions given to black students, particularly males. Nationally, black students were suspended in 1992 at three times the rate of white students. In Maryland, the gap was sometimes wider: In Howard and Harford counties, black students were suspended almost five times as often as non-blacks; in Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Carroll counties, blacks were punished at least twice as often.Educators have recognized a problem that needs to be addressed.

JENA, La. -- The trouble in Jena started with the nooses. Then it rumbled along the town's racial fault lines. Finally, it exploded into months of violence between blacks and whites. Now the 3,000 residents of this small lumber and oil town deep in the heart of central Louisiana are confronting Old South racial demons many thought had long ago been put to rest. One morning last September, students arrived at the local high school to find three hangman's nooses dangling from a tree in the courtyard.

MARYLAND has made more progress than virtually any other Southern state in expanding opportunities in higher education for African-American students. State leaders are committed to developing a comprehensive plan that provides opportunities and ensures academic excellence for all students.Maryland's emphasis on accountability in our schools has resulted in more students from all backgrounds getting the quality education they need for success in college and the workplace. And the state's scholarship programs have created a pathway to higher education for more of our young people.

I'm thinking about moving to Dubuque.The city council in that Iowa hamlet along the Mississippi River last May adopted a plan to attract 100 black families to the virtually all-white town [Population: 58,000]. As a believer in diversity, and someone who would qualify for this quota program on the basis of race, I might actually look forward to raising my family in the cradle of small-town values.There's one problem. A sizable number of Dubuque residents don't like the recruitment program its city fathers have come up with.

JUST TWO days before a Public Agenda/Public Education Network (PEN) study found that just 28 percent of African-American parents believe that standardized tests are culturally biased, the Prince George's County Board of Education called for an investigation of potential racial bias in the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program or MSPAP.Noting a 17-point difference between white and African-American students' average MSPAP scores, board members concluded that bias is the culprit. Unfortunately, all of the evidence collected each year by the Maryland Department of Education and external sources indicates that this simply isn't so. I say unfortunately because fixing the test would be a lot easier than fixing the real problem -- a much more pernicious, complex, systemic problem -- poverty and all its consequences.

Racism besets Baltimore County schools, and despite dozens of recommendations designed to remedy racial inequities, few of the proposals deal with the underlying problem, a school board member charged yesterday."

School system officials have recommended the expulsion of four black students from Severna Park High School who were involved in two race-related brawls there last month, The Sun has learned.But white students involved in the fights have not been disciplined, according to a lawyer for two black students.Alan Legum, representing two of the black students who will be appealing their punishment, questioned the fairness of the disciplinary action."Insensitive is too mild a word," the Annapolis lawyer said.