This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

How to Diversify?

Having followed the recent discourse across our town it is clear that there is a strong desire, amongst many in our community, for greater racial equity.

It is obvious that changing attitudes is best done by targeting the young, before they have had the chance to form opinions. In the case of Guilford, our children experience a rather monochromatic environment while progressing through our school system, as we have few minority families living in our community.

That said, the question is how to diversify the Guilford school experience?

The feds have a plan that will help in this regard. The plan is to incentivize low-income housing in suburban towns like Guilford, especially in nicer neighborhoods that low-income families would normally never be able to afford.

This plan, however, will take time to execute, so how do we accelerate diversification in Guilford’s schools? What about bringing back a proposal from some years ago that was never implemented. That was to transport children from Guilford, and other privileged towns, to New Haven schools and bring inner-city children to fill the vacated places in Guilford schools, thus giving both groups a more diverse educational experience.

Any better ideas?

David Roberts

Guilford