My wife (and co-author) Jen and I recently spent two weeks in Savannah GA doing field research for a new book that we are working on which will be published by McGraw Hill next year. The book is about the economic forces that drive our social problems and how those forces work behind the scenes to undermine much of our social programs and efforts.
We wanted to use real-life examples so we set out to study several U.S. cities that represented different segments of the U.S. but that all had problems with poverty and education. We chose Savannah GA, Detroit MI, Laredo TX, and Portland OR. The first city we studied was Savannah.
Savannah has one of the most integrated school districts in the country – on paper. It also has a growing economy centered around the port of Savannah, the second largest port on the East Coast behind New York. Yet Savannah also has one of the highest poverty rates of any city in the U.S. at 22% in the 2000 census. Looking at the breakdowns by race the poverty rates are much higher for black residents. It has some of the poorest performing schools in the state and at the same time one of the best public schools in the nation.
What we found was both disheartening, tragic and yet hopeful...
We wanted to find out why there could be such disparity within a single school district. We wanted to find out why some Savannah residents seem to have been left behind by the booming port economy. We wanted to find out why there was such a disparity in outcomes for the different segments of Savannah society.
In Savannah it is very easy to show that the problems stem from racism.
We found a survey done by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) for the FHA (Federal Housing Authority) in 1938 while digging in the National Archives which showed the breakdown of the entire city by race and condition of the housing. There are maps showing the breakdown of "black" and "non-white" households.
If you lived in a black district, you could forget about getting an FHA loan for your house. The racial profiling of loans by the FHA (sometimes called "redlining") is well documented (see: here, here, and here) and the maps must have been very helpful in that regard.
The racial breakdowns that existed in 1938 are there today. We drove around to each of the schools in the district. The poorest performing ones – most in the bottom 10% of Georgia schools – were ALL in the 100% black neighborhoods from the 1938 FHA map. Every single one of them.
The funny thing was that the top school in the District, the Savannah Arts Academy, was smack in the middle of the white zone from the 1938 FHA map. It has an enrollment that is only 18% African American in a city that is 57% African American. It was once the much more integrated Savannah High School.
Here is a sign outside the current Savannah Arts Academy. It reads:
Savannah High School evolved as the senior division of Chatham Academy, chartered by the Georgia Legislature in 1768. In 1935, due to overcrowding in schools, the Board of Education collaborated with the Public Works Administration to erect this structure, the largest construction in the state at that time. In 1963, twelve African-American students selected by the NAACP integrated Savannah High School, on of the first two schools in Chatham County to integrate. Sanvannah High School moved to Pennsylvania Avenue in 1997 and Savannah Arts Academy a visual and performing arts school occupied this site.
Notice the front of the school:
and the beautiful park that stretches for blocks directly across the street:
Now the black kids have their own new school, that's not so bad you might think. Well, the school looks new and modern:
and if you look across the street you'll find another park:
Not quite as pretty though is it? And the other buildings aren't so nice
Yep, that's a boarded-up gas station there across from the school and the trailer park.
Before they moved it, Savannah High School was a majority African American High School located in one of the nicest sections of the city. Now that building is occupied by far a majority white school, Savannah Arts Academy, one of the top rated schools in the country, while Savanna High School – currently 97% black – rates 304 out of 340 Georgia high schools. How does this work you may ask?
Simple. There is an admission test for this "magnet school". Sounds great right? It is the Right's model. Students "earn" their way into this excellent school. What could be fairer?
But I'm sure the School Board was really thinking something like:
"Well we can't have those brown and black kids coming into the nice white neighborhood can we? Not only that but private high school is really expensive. Why not move the darker skinned kids off to a new school and create a charter school that only the well-educated blacks (i.e. kids of professional blacks) can get into because we'll have tests for entrance the ghetto kids can't pass? Then we can have our nice white kids go to a great school and we won't have to pay for private school anymore."
So the problem is, if you went to one of the elementary schools in the heavily black areas of Savannah then you have almost no chance of getting into Savannah Arts Academy. The kids who attend private elementary and middle schools and who can pay for special tutoring will get in. The kids who have established portfolios of "art" will get in. Oh, and those 17% African Americans, they're not poor kids generally. They come from middle-class black families that know how to groom their kids early enough to make a difference.
So what we have, in effect, is a taxpayer funded private school for the wealthier Savannah residents. This is what magnet schools are in Savannah. I'm sure there are many other places like this one.
The more we dig into the problems the more evidence we discover of the tragic effects of racism and segregation that still persist. Now before you shake your head at the "Republican racist southerners" who live in a state that gave G.W. a 16.6% lead over Kerry in 2004, keep one thing in mind: the same thing is happening in that liberal bastion, New York City. Read Jonathan Kozol's Shame of the Nation or Savage Inequalities, or Amazing Grace for more on this.
I used to buy the Right's bullshit on magnet and charter schools and admission by testing. I used to believe that the problems existed mainly between districts not within districts, but I now know better. Fortunately, I had a girlfriend (now my wife) who turned me on to Kozol's book and the great tragedy in our school systems. Now I can't just sit back and let this continue.
There is Hope
In Savannah, we expected to find problems. That is indeed why we went there. We did not expect to find that the local government was working hard on these problems. Starting with the election of a new mayor about four years ago, they are starting to turn things around. The new school superintendent also seems to be shaking things up. We left impressed with the people working on the problems.
This is one of the reasons I have worked so hard to help get Obama elected this year. I believe that there are many smart people working very hard to help our kids despite the obstacles. With help at the federal level and National leadership that cares about our kids and understands the issues they face first hand, we can turn this around.
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More on Our Book
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Most of the literature on social problems is either written for the choir or written from the Right's perspective. I wanted to use my background as a successful author in finance to write a different sort of book. One that explains why the problems we face do not go away and why the typical memes are bullshit in the language of business and finance.
In our book we will explain many of the causes of our social problems: poverty, institutional racism, poor education, etc. to those who don't normally pay much attention because they have already digested the inaccurate memes that the poor just need to try harder and stop being lazy and that parents are the primary reason schools in poor and urban areas do poorly. The book will be written for business and finance people as well as the Progressive Democrats who always care about such things.