Unless you are sending your kids to boarding schools or you are currently studying overseas right now, you possibly know that the public education system in the US is a big joke. No Child Left Behind an already flawed and in essence a program that has the right to close down public school districts in its clauses, has been under-funded since its inception.

Well now instead of properly funding schools and hiring more teachers most states are trying to make their education systems profitable. In California districts are working on huge deficits. In Indiana the board of education was almost forced to shut things down last year. In Alabama there was legistation to completely end funding to public schools (based on the idea of anti-segregation because not enough white folks were sending their kids to public schools). And now Nebraska has decided to segregate one of their largest school districts, Omaha Unified, and turn it into three or four districts where one district would be mainly whites, there would be one or two for African Americans and one for Latinos....

The State Legislature approved it.
The Governor signed it.
And the sides supporting it are saying the plan gives minorities the right to properly fund their own school districts! Okay wait, so is the State of Nebraska going to give more money to the Latino and Black communities so they can fix their schools, hire new teachers, get computers and create a cirriculum on par with the white district? Or is this another example of the dreaded Ownership Society.

Minorities will now own their own districts with all the problems that they were already plagued with. There already is no money coming from the State or the Federal Government, so the community will have to come up with the money. Essentially you will have districts within a same city competing with each other for funding breaking down the system even further.

from CNN:
In a move decried by some as state-sponsored segregation, the Legislature voted Thursday to divide the Omaha school system into three districts -- one mostly black, one predominantly white and one largely Hispanic.

Supporters said the plan would give minorities control over their own school board and ensure that their children are not shortchanged in favor of white youngsters.

Republican Gov. Dave Heineman signed the measure into law.

Omaha Sen. Pat Bourne decried the bill, saying, "We will go down in history as one of the first states in 20 years to set race relations back."

"History will not, and should not, judge us kindly," said Sen. Gwen Howard of Omaha.

Attorney General Jon Bruning sent a letter to one of the measure's opponents saying that the bill could be in violation of the Constitution's equal-protection clause and that lawsuits almost certainly will be filed.

But its backers said that at the very least, its passage will force policymakers to negotiate seriously about the future of schools in the Omaha area.

The breakup would not occur until July 2008, leaving time for lawmakers to come up with another idea.