Flashback: FAILED Kansas City Desegregation Plan Redux?!?

This story is mostly about a fencing program coming back in a slightly scaled down version.

Credit where it's due . . .

REMINDING KANSAS CITY OF MILLIONS WASTED FOR FAILED SCHOOLS IS A BOLD MOVE AS THE BOND ISSUE QUESTION MOVES CLOSER!!!

Here's a worthwhile bit of history worth remembering . . . 

The school’s academic reputation began to unravel in the ‘70s and ‘80s as the Black middle class began to leave the inner city for the inner suburbs, says Brad Poos, associate director for the Institute for Urban Education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, who is writing a book on Central set to come out in the fall. He says students began to leave and academic standards dropped.

Soon, Central was labeled as an underachieving, violent, Black school.

“This was not by chance, this was by design,” Poos says. “What we have are communities now where all of the resources have been siphoned off, educational communities included, and those opportunities have become far fewer over the years.”

Throughout the '80s and the following decades, Kansas City was embroiled in legal battles and lawsuits. One in particular was a 1977 suit by the Kansas City, Missouri, School District on behalf of students against Kansas, Missouri and suburban districts in the metro area. They alleged it was the responsibility of the state and suburban districts to desegregate public schools in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1986, Federal Judge Russell Clark ordered an education plan to rebuild the district using taxpayer dollars. This led to an expensive desegregation effort throughout the rest of the decade and into the ‘90s.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Kansas City's 'small but mighty' fencing scene traces back to school desegregation efforts

The sport of fencing is surging in popularity across the United States, especially among young people. Kansas City's fencing scene boasts elite coaches and top-tier athletes dating back to the arrival of a world-renowned coach in the '90s.