At Biloxi, Mississippi, one of the nine public schools to achieve the “Star School” rating based on student achievement is being closed to save $400,000 in a school district budget of $50 Million.
Fiscal Responsibility or Racism?
About 90% of the students at Nichols Elementary are African Americans or Asian Americans…
But unless things change before next month, this city is going to close its top-ranked school, Nichols Elementary, to save about $400,000 a year – less than 1 percent of the school district’s $50 million budget. Worse than that, say residents of the poor and largely black east side of Biloxi, the neighborhood is losing one of its chief sources of pride and cohesion.The question of whether closing the school is an act of fiscal prudence or discrimination has become an explosive subject in Biloxi, reopening age-old racial divides. Nearly 90 percent of the school’s students are black or Asian, while the four School Board members who voted in April for the closing are white.
Read more at NYTimes here
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