Word: magnetizes
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When the history of court-ordered school desegregation is written, Kansas City may go down as its Waterloo. Said to be the nation's most ambitious and expensive magnet plan, Kansas City's effort is unlikely to be matched anywhere. In fact, the high court's action has accelerated the pace at which cities across the country are moving to undo mandatory desegregation (see map). And the federal judiciary, which long staked its authority on the enforcement of desegregation orders, appears eager to depart the field. Chris Hansen of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York City observes...
KCMSD's only remaining hope for racial balance was a system of magnet schools designed to lure whites back from private schools and the suburban districts. In 1986 Judge Clark ordered such a plan. After the KCMSD's enrollment became majority black in 1970, the district's voters, who remained majority white, had allowed the schools to literally fall apart, rejecting funding initiatives 19 times while pipes burst and ceilings collapsed. In addition to smaller classes and higher teacher salaries, Judge Clark's order required renovation of 55 schools and construction of 17. When the school district failed to come...
...moral appeal, however, the Kansas City plan's achievements appear modest when weighed against its enormous expense. The number of out-of-district white children enrolled at the magnet schools peaked at 1,476 last year. Standardized test scores have registered slight gains. White flight, while substantially slowed, has not been reversed: in 1985, the year before the magnet plan began, the district was 73.6% minority; this year it is 75.9% minority. If nothing else, horrible school facilities have been replaced with nice new ones, and for some that is justification enough. "I bet a lot of kids in Kansas...
Though the FBI has been worried that the scene at Justus could become a magnet for armed fringe groups, representatives of the self-proclaimed militias around the Western states have also been denouncing the Freemen as ordinary criminals. "Those people are crooks," says Bob Wright, who leads a militia unit in New Mexico. "This is not a militia issue...
...sure that there would still be a majority supporting the Court's decision." States have argued that the federal government has no right to mandate the schooling of undocumented alien children without assuming the costs. Supporters of the bill also charge that free education serves as a magnet attracting illegal immigrants. But Cohen notes that the Supreme Court ruling noted that the public has an interest in schooling children to prevent the creation of an uneducated underclass...