In 2016, the Cincinnati Public School Board changed the way students are enrolled into their magnet schools across the city. This was done as a part of an anti-white attack against Fairview Elementary in Clifton. Fairview was the only inner-city magnet school with a good report-card, and it also happened to be one of the whitest. It was clear to everyone involved that Fairview was the target of this new policy.
Overview of the Situation
Cincinnati Public Schools has what’s known as “magnet” schools which take applications from kids outside of the school’s neighborhood. This allowed people to avoid sending their kids to crappy neighborhood schools. The magnet schools saw a lot of success because they took admissions on first come, first serve basis. Dedicated parents would literally camp out in line to get a spot for their children in the school. There was a strong correlation between being a dedicated parent and having intelligent and upstanding children. This culminated in the schools being filled with high quality parents and high-quality kids. Thus, a high-quality school! Fairview Elementary was a prime of example of the success of the magnet school process.
Well, it just so happened that the racial composition of the Fairview parents that were doing the camping out was predominately white. This was not an “issue” with the leftist School board initially because for many years, the schools had racial quotas. The quotas stated that the schools had to be 50% white and 50% black. But in 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that assigning racial quotas to public schools violated the 14th amendment. So, after 2008, the admissions for these dedicated parents were now uncapped. As a result, the number of white students in these magnets schools began to increase. There is nothing the leftists who control our inner-city politics loathe more than white people congregating in public places. The leftists could not let this continue. The white congregating was unintentional and merely a coincidence. Anyone who knows Clifton white people, knows that they are the most tolerant and progressive whites around. But that did not matter to the leftists. Any white congregation is essentially a KKK meeting in the eyes of the modern leftist.
So in 2015, the Cincinnati School Board, led by Erica Copeland-Dansby, finally had enough and decided to do away with the first come first serve admissions process. They replaced it with a lottery system that would allow everyone to apply online and then randomly select the students to fill the schools. The reasoning provided by Copeland was that they wanted to make admissions more “equitable.” The school board argued that some [black] parents did not have the time to wait in line for the admissions process. Therefore the only “fair” process would be one that selects at random.
Results of the New Lottery System
The results of this process change have been that white populations have declined at Fairview, along with it’s academic performance. The State of Ohio produces annual academic report cards for all public schools. They also provide archived report cards (although they seemed to have stopped archiving after 2018). So, we are able to look back and compare how Fairview was performing before and after the changes.
Achievement Scores
Achievement scores have dropped by 10 points by the state’s metrics.
Racial Mix
Black population at Fairview has doubled and become the majority (note the idiocy of the website that still refers to them as minority in 2023). This was the only number that the school board cared about. Academic performance is an after-thought. In their quest to give black children access to better schools, they are destroying the better schools. The school is not magic dirt and kids who step foot inside do not suddenly become proficient. It was the good parents who made the school what it was.
At or Above Proficiency Percentages
These are percent of students that are rated as at least proficient in math and reading. Abysmal, double digit point drops in almost every category since the lottery began.
Death of Public Schools
This is what has happened to Fairview school after less than 10 years of this policy. Fairview will likely continue to descend into mediocrity just like most of our other public schools. Our damned leftist politicians that run our city have ruined another good thing in the name of equity. Equity is about everyone ending up in the same place. Not to be confused with equality, where everyone has an opportunity to get in line and secure a spot for your kid in the best school. But because some people are too busy, we all have to suffer, according to the leftists.
Thank God Ohio State Legislature is still dominated by conservatives. Because of them, parents have an option to participate in the voucher program. They can essentially get their tax money back to spend on private schooling. Public schools are naturally pissed about this. Well they can go to hell. When our public schools are attacking their best performers like Fairview in the name of racial equity, they deserve to go under.
