Edwards Wants More Diversity in Public Schools

John Edwards is continuing to push his capmaign forward using the “two America’s” mantra. In a town hall metting yesterday in New Orleans he expanded on the idea of two Americas, referencing what he feels is segregation in public schools.

“We still have two public school systems in this country,” Edwards said. “They’re not segregated just based on race. They’re segregated, to a large extent, based on economics, which has racial implications.”

“The result is,” Edwards continued, “if you live in a wealthy suburban area, the odds are very high that your child will get a very good public school education. If you live in the inner city or if you live in a poor rural area, the odds of that go down dramatically. And I think there are very specific things we can do to not only improve the quality of the education in those areas but also to improve the quality of our schools at large.”

So what is Edawrds solution to the problem? Give more money to middle class schools! According to Politico:

The plan calls for beefing up inner-city magnet schools to attract suburban kids, and providing extra money for schools in middle-class areas as a reward for enrolling more low-income students.

Edwards plan calls for an additional $100 million dollars which would be used to provide for buses for low income students to attend school in middle class areas, grants for middle class schools for new teachers and supplies, and housing voucher’s for low income families to move into middle class areas. Notice a trend here?

Edwards plan relies completely on providing money in middle class neighborhoods, while ignoring the poorer communities. Although some people from those lower income areas will benefit from this plan, what will happen to the families that are left behind, as they watch more public money being diverted from their area to an upper class area?

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