Josh Moon: MPS magnet changes are fair

Now that the school year is coming to a close, the hand wringing has started.

There are changes coming to the Montgomery Public Schools magnet program, and the white people are freaked out.

In one sense, that is understandable.

For the kids who have taken part in the MPS magnet program over the years, the results have been phenomenal. They get a fantastic, free education – one that very often produces college scholarships, or at the very least, easy college entrance.

The magnet program has been the shining star of the city – one that was so good and so bright that it blinded many people to the underlying problems that existed within Montgomery's school system.

This city is unique in its education structure.

You might think it's normal to have a quarter of your city's children attending private schools, but it's not. As a matter of fact, it's downright weird.

That large percentage of students being jerked out of the school system creates problems. Because if you have parents involved enough in their children's education to pay thousands of dollars to send them to a private school, those are parents you'd like to have involved at your public schools.

More importantly, their kids – the kids with expectations and college dreams – you want in your public school classrooms.

Let's also point out one other thing: the majority of those private school kids are white.

This "white flight" from the Montgomery public schools began around the time of desegregation and it has never stopped. If Montgomery's white parents have the means, their children go to either the city's magnet program or to a private school.

Those who lack the means will sometimes move to a surrounding county to escape Montgomery's "horrible" school system.

For the sake of fairness, I should point out that Montgomery's public schools aren't actually all that terrible. The idea that they are has sort of become like the belief that humans use only 10 percent of their brains – a widely believed myth.

Only this one is used to provide an excuse in a more racially sensitive time.

The students in traditional middle and high schools in MPS scored low on college readiness tests, but not significantly so when compared to the surrounding counties where many Montgomery parents flee. And several of the MPS elementary schools actually do quite well.

But no matter, the myth is there. And the white people are not.

Which brings us back to the changes in the magnet program.

It is because of that white flight that the changes are happening. For years, MPS has manipulated the selection process in its magnet program in order to maintain a balanced racial makeup in its magnet schools.

That manipulation sometimes resulted in a staggeringly low percentage of qualified black applicants being accepted into the programs.

Turns out, there are a lot of really smart black kids. Roughly the same percentage of really smart white kids, in fact. But because so many of the white parents have run from the public schools in Montgomery, there were far more black applicants to the magnet programs.

That meant that in some instances, more than three-quarters of qualified black applicants were being shut out. Imagine the outcry if that was reversed.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights rightfully didn't like that.

And we shouldn't like any of it.

Montgomery's magnet programs are an example of what this city's school system could be if racism and ignorance were removed from our culture. They are diverse, good schools that prepared students for a life in the real world, where people of different races routinely interact with one another.

It would be a shame to see that die. But it will.

Because the only way to get around this problem is for white parents to return to the city school system, to place their kids in public schools from an early age, apply for magnet schools acceptance and get over the racial biases that have created these issues.

I don't need 10 percent of my brain to figure out how likely that is.