One of the most important decisions for parents is where their child will go to school. Many parents take into account education, proximity and overall quality of the school. During desegregation parents also began to take into account racial statistics in schools.
A term known as “white flight” refers to a shift of white residents looking for better education for their children. There is no magic number for what a population of a race should be, but when it gets around 50 percent white flight begins to happen. Clarke County began to see changes within the county once desegregation began to take place.
Housing and Consumer Economics Professor Douglas Bachtel discussed “white flight” and how it affected Clarke and Oconee counties.
“Pull factors into Oconee County is the school system,” said Dr. Bachtel. “It is a suburban bedroom community of Athens. It has real high educational attainment levels and real high income levels and low minorities.”
Camille Fulmer is now a resident in Oconee County after raising her two childern in Clarke County. She now helps her daughter, a 1985 Cedar Shoals High School graduate, raise her son.
“We are very glad we live here with the prospect of Jackson (grandson) going to Oconee Schools,” said Fulmer. “We can get a house a whole lot cheaper in Clarke County than here (Oconee County), but that is not an option for us.”
Fulmer has only spent seven years in Oconee County after moving out of Clarke County. Fulmer said, “Once you get out and you see how it is you just don’t go back.”
Fulmer watched both her son and daughter be taunted. Her daughter Joy Fulmer said, “I was the only white person in my freshman PE class at Cedar Shoals. After coming from a private christian school with no black people. That was scary.”
Many residents in Athens send their children to private schools for superior education. So Oconee County schools function like a private school system only it’s public.
The story leaves me wanting to know more the school system. Is the Oconee County school system more like a private school because of its superior education or because of its low minority rate? I'd look into private schools around the area such as Athens Academy just to see how those statistics match up. Maybe you could even compare Oconee County's minority rates with Clarke County schools. Also I'd love to know what percentage of Oconee County graduates go to UGA and if that percent is higher/lower than other schools in Clarke County. It would broaden the story, but I'm interested to know.
ReplyDeleteSome of the things megan and I talked about where what her focus is. Is it discussing white flight and how it's happened (becuase that's somewhat boring). Or is it what's being done to combat it?
ReplyDeleteThe latter is more interesting to me. I suggested she find her focus a little more and go from there. I suggested she find the head of the school sytem and talk to him about the dynamic of kids in schools. Perhaps give accounts from both sides of the story (staying in athens regardless of school dynamic, and moving because of education). I also noted that just because schools are private doesn't mean their superior. And what does it mean to funciton like private school??
She's got good ideas, they just need to be executed a little more carefully.