School Desegregation, the Philadelphia Experience
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 103 546 UD 014 920 AUTHOR Herron, William P. TITLE School Desegregation, the Philadelphia Experience. PUB DATE 75 NOTE 33p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Association (Washington, D.C., March 1975) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.76 HC-$1.95 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS Bus Transportation; Educational Policy; Integration Litigation; *Integration Methods; *Integration Plans; Integration Studies; Public Policy; Public Schools; Racial Integration; School Districts; *School Integration; Student Transportation; Transfer Programs; *Urban Schools IDENTIFIERS Pennsylvania; *Philadelphia ABSTRACT The Philadelphia experience very strongly indicates that at least in Philadelphia, and very probably in most large cities in the northeastern U.S., several factors--notably the geographic separation of the races within the city and the existence of a sizable non-public school system (Usually (Usually parochial)--preclude the effective desegregation of the public schools without large scale busing of the pupils or without some kind of mixing of white suburban populations with black central city populations. Thus, those who espouse the use of desegregation tools such as changing feeder areas, pairing adjacent schools, and offering voluntary magnet programs at particular locations to achieve racial balance in the public schools of such cities may well be deluding themselves. As of mid-February 1975, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission is attempting to develop a desegregation plan for the Philadelphia schools. At the same time, the school district staff committee is also preparing a plan which will contain several elements from previews plans as well as the 'Academy' concept. The situation at the present time represents a significant departure in that this is the first time that the Commission has been ordered to prepare a plan. Previously, the Commission's role has been simply to review the plans prepared by the school district. (Author/JM) wII BEST COPY AVAILABLE SCHOOL DESEGREGATION, THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIENCE Presented at the 1975 Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association Washington, D.C. U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS FirENfri.PRo Dual) EXACTLY AS ;W.-11\a° I ROW THE PERSON OP ouGANI/A tioN ORIGIN ATINc, IT poiNTSOT viEA OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSAP.L Y PEPRI: SENT OF rIcIAL NA t.DNAL EDUCATION POSITION OR Pm ICY By: William P. Herron, Assistant Director Division of Administrative and Survey Research Services The School District of Philadelphia TABLE OF CONTENTS History of Desegregation Planning In Philadelphia 1 Specific Conditions Affecting Desegregation Planning In Philadelphla 2 Approaches to Desegregation Planning 8 Problems and Constraints 10 Recent Developments 17 Summary and Conclusions 26 LIST OF FIGURES Following Page Figure 1 Distribution of Philadelphia Public Schnnl Pupils, by Race,1973-74 3 Figure 2Areas with Predominantly White Pupil Population,1973-74 6 Figure 3 Proposed Educational Service Areas 20 3 HISTORY OF DESEGREGATION PLANNING IN PHILADELPHIA In late 1967, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, ina case involving the Chester, Pennsylvania School District, rued that education offeredin racially imbalanced public schools is discriminatory- whether brought about intention- ally ofnot. Shortly after this ruling was handed down, the Pennsylvania Human elations Commission ordered seventeen school districts throughout the state to prepare and submit desegregation plans by June 30, 1968. Philadel- phia, as the largest of these districts and theone confronted with the most complex problems, requested a series of extensions and finally submitteda plan to the Commission in July of 1969. After lengthy review and a series of staff level meetings between the school district and the Commission, the planwas rejected in March of 1970. In October of that year, the Human Relations Commission lodgedi.. complaint asserting that the School District of Philadelphiawas in violation of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act of 1966. In March of 1971, the Human Relations Commission held hearings in Philadelphiaon this complaint. Follow- ing these hearings in June 1971, the Commission found the school district in violation of the Act and issued an order that the school district "develop ar1d submit to the Commission for its approval, a plan and timetable for implementation thereof that will eliminate racial imbalance (as defined by the Final Order)in its schools." The school district immediately appealed the Commission's order in Commonwealth Court, and one year later in August 1972, the Court upheld the Commission's adjudication in all respects. The Commission thereupon entered its amended final order in September 1972 which required the school district to develop and submit to the Commission by January 2, 1973 a plan and timetable for implementation to eliminate racial imbalance in its schools. In December of 1972, when it became apparent 1 4 that a viable plan could not be developed by the January 1973 deadline, the school district requested an extension of time from the Commission and was given until April 1973 to submit its plan. In March of 1973, school district staff submitted a proposed desegrega- tion plan for review by the Board of Education. The major elements of the: proposed plan included: physical desegregation within existing school district boundaries, programmatic desegregation, and the formation of a Metropolitan School District. After reviewing the proposed plan, the Board rejected it because it was too r.ostly and would meet with citizen opposition. The Board, therefore, informed the Commission that it had no viable plan to submit by the April 1973 deadline. In November of 1973, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ordered the School District of Philadelphia to submit a plan and timetable for implementa- tion to the Human Relations Commission by February 15, 1974. The Board and the Superintendent immediately appointed a staff committee, chaired by a Board member, to develop the plan as well as a broad-based Citizen's Committee to advise and work with the staff committee. The committee was charged with developing a viable plan which would contain at least three major elements: physical desegregation, programmatic desegregation, and regionalization. The plan was to accomplish the desegregation of all 280 Philadelphia public schools over a three year period and was to be completed in time for review by the School Board prior to submission to the Commission on February 15. SPECIFIC CONDITIONS AFFECTING DESEGREGATION PLANNING IN PHILADELPHIA The School District of Philadelphia is coextensive with the City and County of Philadelphia. Philadelphia is the central city of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-New Jersey SMSA, an eight county area comprised of five Penn- sylvania counties and three New Jersey counties. Like most large cities in the north, Philadelphia has a sizable Negro population (34% of the total In 1970). This Is in contrast to 17.2 percent for the SMSA as a whole. Moreover, the 654,000 Negroes In Philadelphia represent 77 percent of the Negro population in the entire SMSA, while Philadelphia's total population of approximately two million, represents only 40 percent of the entire SMSA. It is also important to note that Philadelphia's black population is highly concentrated in several sections of the city. These concentrations grew up over a period of years during which Philadelphia received a sub- stantial number of immigrants from the South (nearly 175,000 between 1940 and 1970) and have been reinforced by a high rate of natural increase in recent years. These Negro residential areas expanded outward from their core over the years to the extent that, at present, most of west Philadelphia, all of north central Philadelphia, much of northwest Philadelphia, and parts of south Philadelphia are predominantly black. Conversely, the white population is overwhelmingly in the majority in northeast Philadelphia, the Rnxborough section of the northwest, and in parts of south Philadelphia. (See Figure 1.) The impact of this geographic separation of the races is, of course, quite pronounced in terms of the racial composition of enrollments in Philadel- phia's public schools. Overall enrollment in the Philadelphia public schools is 61.3% black, 4.20 Spanish Surnamed, and 34.19 white. The public schools located In the black residential areas have enrollments that are heavily, if not totally black, and the schools in the white residential areas have enrollments that are heavily, if not totally white. This situation is exacerbated by the existence of a well established and extensive non-public school system operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. I I I r (1). 4 ViC *As: '.es This system, which has been in operatioe, sine: the early nineteenthcentury, serves nearly one-third of the school aged children in the city and has; an enrollment whiGh is around 90 percent white. The effect of this system is most pronounced in the zone of transition between primarily black and white residential areas. In these zones the total populatio,,is often racially balanced with whites and blacks living in close pro, imity to each other. School enrollments in these areas, however, often do not reflect the racial composition of the total population since the majority of than black children attend the local public school while the white children attend a nearby parish school. As previously noted, one of the