by Ta Kisha Fitzgerald
Do school magnet programs hurt the students they're supposed to help?
In the early 1990s there was a complaint filed with the Office of Civil Rights against the Knox County School System, complaining that the schools in the system were segregated. In response to the complaint, the school system created a magnet program for inner-city schools, with specialized classes and concentrations not offered at other schools, in order to draw Caucasian students in and create racial balance.
This policy was implemented at five area schools: Sarah Moore Greene Elementary, Green Elementary, Beaumont Elementary, Vine Middle, and Austin-East High. However, after speaking to a number of students, educators, and administrators, and after reading material on the magnet program, it seems to me the implementation of the program has a negative impact on the students who are not accepted into the magnet classes.
First, I was under the impression that the program would be implemented throughout the school and therefore make the school a magnet school. Much to my surprise, this is not how the program works. The schools are not magnet schools, but merely schools that offer magnet programs. For example, if a school has five classrooms for each grade level, that does not mean that all five are magnet classes; only one or two classes are. The others may be basic, standard, or advanced. If the argument stands that the magnet education is superior to the basic, standard, or advanced, then these classes need to become magnet classes.
Another concern is that each class is only open to a specific number of students. Therefore, if the classes become full, students who wish to get in are placed on a waiting list. With the exception of Beaumont Elementary, the magnet programs are interest-driven—in other words, there are no prerequisites for admission into the magnet classes. In the four interest-driven programs, there are a total of 205 students on the waiting list, according to school system statistics. All of these are African-American students. This number consists of 78 African-American students from inside the school zones and 127 African-American students from outside the zones.
Further, making the magnet classes interest-driven is illogical to the concept of education. Why not replace all of these classes with magnet classes? Why are we giving students the option of choosing challenging versus less challenging classes?
We were all students once, and we all know that as students, we wanted to do just enough to get by. However, we were sent to school to receive book knowledge as well as to acquire the strength to tackle and to accomplish new goals, to prepare us for college and for graduate school. I fail to understand why students from elementary through high school are given the option of choosing the level of education that they wish to receive. I was always taught that a hard B is better than an easy A, any time.
Finally, the perception of the program in many of the students' eyes is that the students in the magnet program receive special treatment. Students have complained that the magnet students are permitted access to laptop computers while others are not, attend better field trips, represent the school at different functions and receive all-around better treatment than students not in the magnet program.
I have no personal knowledge whether these policies are in effect; I am relaying the concerns that have been voiced by a number of students who attend these schools with magnet programs. The non-magnet student's perception of divergent treatment is the true issue that needs to be addressed. If these policies are in place, then their impact on non-magnet students needs to be addressed. If the implementation of a magnet program serves to lower the self-esteem and self-worth of students who do not receive the rewards of the program, then the program needs to be restructured.
The magnet program needs to be re-evaluated with the goal of educating all of the students at the school at a superior level. Education should be picked over integration every time. Integration means nothing if the students are not equal. And if the students are not being educated on the same level, then they are not equal.
Ta Kisha Fitzgerald is a Knox County assistant district attorney.
November 2, 2000 * Vol. 10, No. 44
© 2000 Metro Pulse
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