RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: OZschwitz: Multiculturalism and "white flight" from government schools Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:12 pm | |
| REFUGEES should be housed across a wider spread of suburbs to halt the so-called "white flight" from some government schools, according to a senior Federal Government MP.
Laurie Ferguson, parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs, said white flight — where Anglo-European parents shun state schools that have a high proportion of students from other racial backgrounds — had become a big challenge for multicultural Australia.
"People fear there is a monoculture in some suburbs. They believe there is an over-dominance of some cultures in schools, which is denigrating the quality of education," Mr Ferguson said.
"So they are withdrawing their kids from government schools and sending them to religious or selective high schools. This leads to further concentration of marginalised communities in government schools and the further stigmatisation of these schools."
The term "white flight" was coined in the US. It was applied to schools after desegregation began in the 1960s, when many white people who could afford private schools pulled their children from mixed public schools.
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