We speak with Dr. LaToya Baldwin Clark, assistant professor at UCLA School of Law. Dr. Baldwin Clark explains how school boundaries are used for racial exclusion. In many cases, schools don’t just reflect, but cause, segregated neighborhoods. Dr. Baldwin Clark argues that closing the education gap isn’t just about bringing up the bottom, but bringing down the top as well. Parents, teachers, and administrators need to work together to prevent children from benefiting from unearned privilege. Inequality is intrinsically detrimental.
Overview
00:00-00:57 Intros
00:57-03:12 Schools are not preparing all students to be lifelong learners
03:12-13:16 Education as property; cultural and social capital
13:16-15:28 Schools as community enterprises
15:28-18:20 “Schooling in Capitalist America;” caste; legacies of slavery
18:20-21:32 Enforcement of school district boundaries
21:32-25:28 School segregation and housing segregation
25:28-28:20 “Bringing up the bottom and bringing down the top”; reducing the relative distance between the bottom and the top
28:20-31:30 Making the gap less consequential
31:30-35:10 What Culver City (CA) is doing to address inequality in a relative way
35:10-37:44 Implications for Black students when “good schools” look like “White schools”
37:44-40:50 Aggressions and microaggressions in predominantly White schools
40:50-42:15 Outro
Transcript
Click here to see the full transcript of this episode.
References
- Book Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis
- Dr. Baldwin Clark’s website
- Dr. Baldwin Clark’s medium