Omaha Schools Split Along Race Lines

[DeclinetoState]

By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press Writer

LINCOLN, Neb.

In a move decried by some as state-sponsored segregation, the Legislature voted Thursday to divide the Omaha school system into three districts _ one mostly black, one predominantly white and one largely Hispanic.

Supporters said the plan would give minorities control over their own school board and ensure that their children are not shortchanged in favor of white youngsters.


Breitbart.com (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/04/13/D8GVGPE80.html)

See how long before this winds up in court.

[DesertFox]

Separate but equal. What an idea.

[Longhorn_Platinum]

:unsmile: Walter Williams has testified about how much better Harlem schools were before integration. If this idea works in Omaha, look for a demonicrat judge to strike it down. Demonicrats really don't want schools that work.

[Maggie_T]

I know. I heard about this in several conservative talk shows and it tickled me to death.

Liberals acting racist. Whudda thunk. LOL.

[Riverboat]

:unsmile: Walter Williams has testified about how much better Harlem schools were before integration. Ah, you must be referring to the "soft bigotry of low expectations."

Funny I should mention. I was a mere stripling attending an inner-city high school where I was a minority when I walked into the classroom of the redoubtable, fearful English teacher Mrs. Sheppard. She was a tall, lanky black woman who openly detested ignorance of what would later be referred to Dead White Europeans. The avowed Love of Her Life was William Shakespeare, and she didn't let anyone forget it either. Sloppy grammar didn't get past her, nor did sloppy reasoning. I owe a LOT to that woman, as well as the black English teacher I had twice in junior high.

I should have been so lucky as to live in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance when such luminaries as James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and others, were publishing their works.

[Kathy29]

Omaha doesn't want to tell you the real reason why they want to separate the races.

Seeing the racially motivated fights in integrated schools, they are afraid it will happen there.

[Rhino]

Not it at all actually. I used to live there. Ernie Chambers, the black democrat who proposed this, has been a long time critic of the school system, along with just about everything else in Omaha. It has been his position for years that having one unified school system puts several areas at a disadvantage due to conflicting priorities. It's kind of amusing that anyone is calling his proposal racist. He always reminded me of Jesse jackson or Al Sharpton, constantly pulling the race card to suit his needs. The fact that it's being pulled on him just cracks me up!

[nicki33]

A program that would help kids in this country rise up above poor test scores, I'm for that.

I don't think it's racist. Here's a noble idea, let's put kids before politicians.

[Rhino]

I agree with it too. I watched several local school systems get swallowed up into the Omaha Unified School District when the suburbs they were located in got forcibly annexed into Omaha. The quality of education in almost all of those areas dropped dramatically, and private schools sprang up almost everywhere. Although I don't think those specific areas would be affected by this proposal, it at least opens the door for the concept of local control of education.