美国国家公共电台 NPR This Mostly White City Wants To Leave Its Mostly Black School District

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST: 

For more than 60 years now, since Brown v. Board of Education, federal courts have kept an eye on specific school districts across this country with a history of segregation¹. One of those is the Jefferson County School District just outside Birmingham, Ala.

And it is now up to a federal judge to decide whether a predominantly white city within the district can secede² from its larger majority-black system and start its own. Sherrel Wheeler Stewart from member station WBHM reports.

SHERREL WHEELER STEWART, BYLINE³: That mostly white city is Gardendale, Ala., where Friday nights are ruled by high-school football. The schools here in Gardendale are among the best-performing in Jefferson County. But being the best in Jefferson County isn't enough for Mayor Stan Hogeland.

STAN HOGELAND: As the mayor of the city, you know, I'm not all-knowing. I don't pretend to be. But students perform better in city-run systems.

STEWART: He wants out of the county system. And so do a lot of people in Gardendale. That was clear three years ago, when city residents voted to increase their own property taxes to start a school district of their own.

HOGELAND: You know, if we had our own system with a local superintendent⁴ and a local board that lives in town that you see when you go shopping or at church - maybe a little more accountability.

STEWART: But it isn't as easy as that. In 1971, African-Americans sued the district for segregating⁵ black and white students and won. Since then the federal courts have always had the final say on any movement in and out of the district. And soon, the federal judge in this case will decide if this is another move to segregate⁶.

CRAIG POUNCEY: Nobody has ever said anything to me about the real reason why they want to form the district.

STEWART: That's Craig Pouncey, the superintendent of Jefferson County Schools.

POUNCEY: Diversity actually builds strength in my opinion because it opens people's minds. And I've seen where our schools, particularly in the last two years, have really thrived on that diversity.

STEWART: He says that diversity, additional money and even access to some special programs all go out the window with Gardendale.

POUNCEY: I don't fault a municipality from wanting those things. But we have to be very mindful of the overall impacts.

STEWART: Impact, too, on hundreds of students who take advantage of specialized⁷ classes Gardendale schools offers to kids from around the county - students like 11th grader DeVonte Kirkland. He makes the 25-minute trek⁸ every day from the high school near his home in northeast Jefferson County to Gardendale for an autotech class.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Yeah. Loosen it up just a little bit.

STEWART: Students hover⁹ around a car as DeVonte is focused on changing the oil.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Let it dry. There you go.

STEWART: After he graduates, he hopes to go to school at Alabama State University but likes this class because he wants to know how to work on his own car when he gets one. He's also making friends, some who don't look like him, some who come from other parts of the county.

DEVONTE KIRKLAND: Sometimes, we see each other out of school. And we talk in school, too. So I'm learning something new from them every day.

STEWART: But students like DeVonte wouldn't have access to Gardendale if it leaves the county system. City leaders there have tried to make the case they aren't segregating by allowing about 700 black students to remain in the new majority-white system even though they live outside city limits. The federal judge will soon decide whether that would make the new district truly desegregated.

For NPR News, I'm Sherrel Wheeler Stewart in Jefferson County, Ala.

GREENE: And Sherrel's story was produced in partnership¹⁰ with the Southern Education Desk, a public media consortium.

1 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

2 secede   

v.退出，脱离

参考例句：

• They plotted to make the whole Mississippi Valley secede from the United States.他们阴谋策划使整个密西西比流域脱离美国。
• We won't allow Tibet to secede from China and become an independent nation.我们决不允许西藏脱离中国独立。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

5 segregating   

（使）分开( segregate的现在分词 )； 分离； 隔离； 隔离并区别对待（不同种族、宗教或性别的人）

参考例句：

• The government has just repealed the law segregating the public facilities. 这个政府已经撤销了分离公共设施的法律。
• Siblings and dizygotic twins share only 50% of their segregating genes. 同卵双生双胞胎和双卵双生双胞胎分享仅50%的基因。

6 segregate   

adj.分离的，被隔离的；vt.使分离，使隔离

参考例句：

• We have to segregate for a few day.我们得分离一段日子。
• Some societies still segregate men and women.有的社会仍然将男女隔离。

7 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

8 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

9 hover   

vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫

参考例句：

• You don't hover round the table.你不要围着桌子走来走去。
• A plane is hover on our house.有一架飞机在我们的房子上盘旋。

10 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。