"White Flight" in NSW's public schools

I've written a reply to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about 'white flight' from NSW's public schools. 

The suggestion that public schools across New South Wales are experiencing 'white flight,' that is an exodus of Caucasian students from schools which are dominated by Muslim, Asian or Aboriginal populations ignores the primary reason underpinning such a trend: Economics.

 

Race is the most obvious social factor that one can perceive. It is easy for individuals to identify a student's race, because it is something that everyone can see with their own eyes. However, to identify the socio-economic status of a student takes reason, depth and analysis. Fundamentally, it easy to observe trends which appear racist or racially-motivated, but in fact are economically driven, because of the longstanding economic inequity between cultural groups.

 

Since the landmark Brown v Board of Education (1954) case in the United States, which forced the integration of America's public school, generations of black school children have endured long bus rides to white neighbourhoods, and vice versa, to facilitate a racial balance. The Brown case did not endeavour, or even consider, the economic situation of the students being bussed. Today, one can observe many American schools with racial diversity, but economic homogeneity. Wealthier schools invariable become more successful, and poorer ones declined. Hence, the 'ghettoisation' and increasing disparity between social classes in America.

 

The dynamic suggested by the report can be summarised as: White students are fleeing schools dominated by Asians, but Asians are fleeing from Muslims and they all are fleeing from Aboriginals, roughly speaking. Why has the trend appeared in this order, that being White-Asian-Muslim-Aboriginal? It is simple to realise that, in terms of average income, the economic hierarchy has evolved in this way, mostly due to historic rates of immigration and the disenfranchisement of our indigenous population.

 

For example, an Asian family becomes more affluent over a generation or two: They would hence demand a higher quality of education for their children. This perceived higher quality education is afforded by private schools. The perception that private education provided upward mobility is not a result of the 'whiteness' of a school, but rather the higher income levels of the families of that attend Catholic or independent schools. Conversely, if a rural school became populated by lower-income familles, regardless of race, their middle-income counterparts often move to a education environment that is economically homogeneous.

 

Only by analysing the underlying economic rationale for what is apparently 'white flight' can explain why our most elite schools, like Sydney's Shore or Kings or Melborne's Scotch or Grammar, are racially diverse with White and Asian students but economically homogeneous. White families are not fleeing these elite schools as more Asians enter their ranks, as the Asian students entering come from an equally affluent background, therefore, have largely congruent resources, goals and expectations as their White classmates. It when there is a large income gap that families begin moving schools which, because of broader inequity between cultural groups, appears to be racial.

 

Broadly speaking, parents that force a long commute upon their children are not doing so because they are racist. They are seeking an environment that their children could be educated in that is consistent with their financial standing – with the mannerisms, cultural and language there attached. This trend is not new and has existed since the bifurcation of our education system.

 

Aron Ping D'Souza is a Tutor in Political Economy at the University of Melbourne. He come from a multicultural background and was educated in one of America's 'model' secondary schools for racial integration.