The Downfall of Atlanta Public Schools
Following the desegregation of public schools in 1961, Atlanta public schools were no longer as prestigious as they once were due to the increasing number of white students switching out of the system and moving over to private schools or moving to the edges of the city limits where public schools were limited but better. This began as early as 1968 when the percentage of white students to black in inner city schools was 41% to 51%, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution article from 1986. By 1980, the percentage of white students in the APS was down to only 9%, meaning that around 90% of students were black. The edges of the city, especially the northern neighborhoods, were where the majority of the white population lived and still live today, sadly making the schools in these communities more academically inclined. In the AJC article, the author Connie Green writes that, "Northside High School in Buckhead, which has a healthy enrollment of 1,245, offers students five different levels of five different languages. Archer, with an enrollment that has shrunk from more than 2,000 to 782, struggles to continue offering French I." White parents were moving their kids away from inner city schools more and more every year in order to give their kids the best opportunities for success. However, "In low-income communities, schools [were] becoming warehouses for low achievers" (Green), and sadly, these communities were predominantly black. Green also provides a chart for SAT scores of Atlanta high schools which shows that at Northside High in Buckhead, the average total score is 836, but at Archer, the average score was a 684. Not only were students switching out or not enrolling at all, but the test scores and achievements were drastically different between white dominated and black dominated schools.
Works Cited
Green, Connie. "Atlanta Schools: Some improve, but others on a downward slide". Atlanta Journal Constitution, June 1, 1986.