Utopian aims

Wish I'd said that!

[Reprinted from Issues & Views March 1, 2004]

The National Association for Neighborhood Schools (NANS) continues its struggle against the social engineering that has undermined or destroyed whole school systems in the United States. In the latest NANS News Update (2/21/04), director Joyce Haws cites a retired teacher's comments on the "failed social experiment":

In a letter to the editor of Education Week (2/11/04) Tom Shuford, retired public school teacher, says, "The tragic history of school desegregation ... owes much to the lack of imagination of desegregation's anointed champions. Would-be tyrants all, these oft-cited academics and civil rights leaders could conceive of no role for freedom. They know only the logic of coercion."

Shuford says, "In the zealot's mind, the failure of school desegregation was not due to their own urgent impulse to coerce. They were unjustly denied sufficient scope for this impulse. The villains were fleeing whites, who would not submit to their designs.

"Our grandmasters of social engineering failed to desegregate urban schools. They did not get the giant urban-suburban chessboard they needed to put every child-pawn in just the right configuration. But the human impulse to coerce in the service of utopian aims is as ardent as ever. Social chess masters are devising new projects. These too will fail, wreaking havoc. For their designers still cannot imagine a role for freedom in the critical K-12 years."

Haws urges citizens to petition Congress to pass court-limiting legislation. She writes, "The federal courts must not be permitted to issue orders requiring racial/ethnic manipulation in defiance of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. NANS urges the public to demand such legislation and to seek state legislation and/or a state constitutional amendment forbidding the use of race and ancestry and socioeconomic status as factors in school assignment."

For more information about ongoing endeavors around the country to restore neighborhood schools, visit the website of the National Association for Neighborhood Schools. Inquire about membership in NANS to receive the organization's informative hard copy newsletter (e-mail: RHaws@aol.com).

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