DOES NOT WORK TO CAPACITY

PHOENIX UNION'S DESEGREGATION PROGRAM PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS. BUT THE SCHOOL SYSTEM FLUNKED OUT WHEN IT CAME TO EDUCATING KIDS.

Comments (0) By Lisa Davis Thursday, Sep 28 1995

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"My fear is that if it were not for someone watching over them, it will go back to the way it was," Flores says.

He's not alone. Most people who know anything about Phoenix Union High School District guess that within a single year, the schools would become completely re-segregated if the order were lifted. A quick look at housing patterns shows they're probably right.

"I'm not ready to throw the baby out yet," says Tom Espinoza, who was behind the original lawsuit. "There are so many people in the community saying, 'Scrap the whole thing. It's not working and maybe that will force them to make the school district deal with the real issue.'

"And the real issue is that all of the kids in the Phoenix Union High School District should be reading and writing and doing math skills.

"The truth is that my issue was never desegregation. My concern was not that we have more Anglo students. The issue was how do we force the school district into providing a better education? And we had to file suit to do it. In hindsight, I'm not sure we ever reached that."
"I would love for this to be about education," Flores says, discussing the return of his case. "But it's not.