by Chinwe Onyenekwu

It has been fifty years since what would become the longest running school-desegregation lawsuit was first filed in Baton Rouge. The original intention of the lawsuit was to give black students the same educational opportunities that their white peers had at the time. The results are questionable.

In 1981, the implementation of a bussing program allowing lower income schoolchildren to go to better quality schools outside of their neighborhoods had dramatic effects. Although  whites had represented 60% of school system before, almost immediately many opted to move to surrounding suburbs or to enroll their children in private schools. The new McKinley Magnet Middle located on 1550 Eddie Robinson, Sr. Dr. promises to be unlike the former school formerly located on Young Gus Ave. “I feel they are trying to keep the black students out of the new McKinley. My kids went to this school for and now my grand kids can’t,” said Ann Jackson, a resident of East Baton Rouge Parish.

The concerns for the current Baton Rouge school system extend well beyond the loss of income due to “white flight”.  It is estimated that 61% of Baton Rouge-area children qualify for free and reduced lunch which serves as the standard way to measure of poverty.  Also standardized testing used to measure math and reading skills show that 40% of students are not performing at grade level.

Fortunately, people are not powerless in deciding the future of Baton Rouge.  The elections of for the East Baton Rouge school board will be held September 30 wherein the future for one of the last post-integration cities can be decided