School reclassifies mixed students as white for more funding
CVK
(Thanks to Ben Jackson for alerting us to this story!) A magnet school in Hartford, CT has been stirring up a ton of controversy after its principal Eduardo V. Genao (pictured) allegedly coerced several mixed students to change their racial identity to white so that the school would qualify for more funding. Genao claims he asked for every student’s permission, but most deny this, and say that he guilted them into identifying as white for the good of the school:
Genao conceded that he asked teachers to help him identify biracial students and that he called the students to his office. In the course of discussing their racial classifications, he acknowledged, he spoke with them about the school’s funding. “I did indicate to the students and the parents how the formula works,” he said.
In fact, state guidelines tie the funding of magnet schools that opened before this year to residency, not race… to qualify for magnet school funding, schools must draw at least 30 percent of their students from the suburbs - a standard Sport & Medical Sciences Academy meets.
Race becomes a factor, for schools established before this year, in regard to compliance with the Sheff vs. O’Neill school desegregation settlement. It says 28 percent of a magnet school’s students must be white in order to count toward reducing racial isolation. With just 89 white students in a population of 400, or 22 percent, Sport & Medical Sciences falls far short.
Genao, who is in his first year at the magnet school and is new to Hartford, said he did not realize the state law linking funding to racial quotas applies only to new schools and not to established schools such as his. He denied, though, that the change in the students’ racial classifications was linked to money.
This case has drawn attention to the massive inconsistencies that still exist in the ways schools collect racial data. Of course, this can all be traced to the Department of Education’s delays in implementing federal guidelines that require it, along with all federal agencies, to allow people to check all that apply, instead of just one box. (To learn more about this issue, check out our FAQ with Census expert Professor Ann Morning.)
Personally, I think this should be a wake-up call to us mixed folks that our ambiguous status can be exploited for others’ financial and/or political gain. Another good example of this is Ward Connerly’s ongoing campaign to eradicate all racial categories. He uses sob stories of mixed people who are forced to pick one box as an illustration of why racial categories don’t make sense. But what some people fail to realize is that this initiative is extremely dangerous because in effect, there would be no way of tracking civil rights violations or racial discrimination.
Nina wrote:
What’s the difference? Plenty of biracial kids have been classified as “black” — and I’m sure that it’s helped with funding in the past.
Posted 26 Mar 2006 at 1:41 pm ¶
K-Pow wrote:
Wow, talk about having some integrity. I can’t believe he actually admitted that he LIED about the racial make-up of his school.
What a great role model.
Posted 26 Mar 2006 at 2:55 pm ¶
Bumble B wrote:
I think the only fair method for funding counts is to pie-chart mixed kids and count a kid who’s 1/2 White as 1/2 White “credit.” No rounding up or down. It’s simple math - yet ironically, school’s can’t seem to use such simple concepts that they teach…
Posted 26 Mar 2006 at 6:57 pm ¶
Trismegistus wrote:
Sorry, Bumble B, but there is no such thing as 1/2 White. You either are White, Black, or another race. Perhaps it’s time to add categories for those born by the mixing of 2 races. Then they will have their own identity, instead of the confusion now.
Posted 27 Mar 2006 at 5:07 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Tris:
Clue-phone: We are BOTH/ALL, not a new category. I’m not down w/ fractions, but neither do I think that lumping the white/Asians, Asian/African-Americans, African-American/Hispanics, and/or Arab/African-American/white/South Asians together into some “multiracial” category is going to mean anything either. all those different ethnicities and cultures are NOT one “identity,” thanks.
If real diversity is what they want, how about making sure that qualified gifted public school students (which is what magnet schools are) draw from the lower, middle, and upper income classes? That’s a much better barometer IMO.
Posted 27 Mar 2006 at 6:31 pm ¶
KiandKegan'sMOM wrote:
I think this is outrageous, really!!! My kids are biracial. I am white and their daddy is African American. They don’t look like they are white. They look light skinned African Americans. I don’t think it is fair for kids to have to choose one or the other, whether or not it is for funding. The qualifications to receive funding shouldn’t, IMO, be based on the percentage of caucasian students to black students, but on the performance of the students academically, as a whole-racial background not playing a factor whatsoever!
Posted 28 Mar 2006 at 3:52 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
MOM:
A couple of notes: “light skinned” African-Americans are usually multigenerationally mixed, if AA-identified. (see other article re: politician dropping names, or in his case, ethnicities).
And I think w/ regards to funding, the magnet school (usually not based on location w/in a school district, but on performance) seems to be part of a larger program that emphasizes diversity. The problem is, they are using straight racial lines when they probably will do the students a service by having a diverse ECONOMIC student body. Noone likes to be the only poor kid in the class; and those who are better off would probably benefit from knowing how the other 90% live.
Posted 28 Mar 2006 at 8:37 pm ¶
Brenda Parks wrote:
I would like to reply to Nina……the BIG IDEA is that these kids had already chosen what race they were…they were called down WITHOUT parental permission…..the kids were identified by TEACHERS…. and sent down
The biggest deal……ok…now that they have identified themselves as white…what about college applications? They are listed by the school as “white”…..hmmm….kind of puts a different perspective on things doesn’t it?
Does this guy still have a position??????
Posted 15 Apr 2006 at 7:59 pm ¶
Jenny wrote:
Amen with that…
Teachers are supposed to protect you…not turn you in
Posted 16 Apr 2006 at 5:11 pm ¶
amalia wrote:
Lyonside, I agree w/your comment regarding “both/all. A generic category of “mixed” does nothing in terms of acknowledging the huge array of backgrounds. However, even if all the ancestors are noted, people of mixed background will in America (this is not usu. the case worldwide) be seen as people of color, i.e. non white. This doesn’t automatically mean not acknowledging, for example, your European ancestry as much as your Asian ancestry.
Also, it is not only light skinned AAs that are of a mixed background. Usually in a family, there are dark and light skinned people, so obviously they would both have the same ancestry, so both would be mixed. People seem to think that light skin is a mandatory indicator of a mixed background, which it plainly isn’t.
Posted 14 May 2006 at 10:59 am ¶
mj wrote:
But…..if a child from bi-racial parents…has one black parent and one while parent…….why does the race of the child have to be black? Can’t he or she, simply be just as much white as black?
Posted 08 Jun 2006 at 3:09 pm ¶
mj wrote:
oh….and proud of all of it. No one is asking for a child to choose races. but, if a child has one parent from one race….and another parent from another race….on paper….. are they not 50 percent one and 50 percent the other?
Posted 08 Jun 2006 at 3:16 pm ¶