Some questions about ‘The Problem We All Live With’

And it’s not just a wonky abstract policy story, either because Hannah-Jones tells it through the eyes of a Normandy mom and daughter who went through the process of becoming troubled by the Normandy schools and, desperate for a change, were willing to endure the 30-mile daily bus ride to a better opportunity. As several folks have already noted on Twitter, there’s some pretty amazing audio tape from St. Louis Public Radio from the community meeting when the white parents are first finding out that their schools are going to host an influx of Normandy kids.

It’s great that This American Life is returning to education so soon after last year’s two-part “Harper High.” Along with the Colbert Report (RIP), the Daily Show under Jon Stewart, and the PBS NewsHour, there are few other big-reach shows that return to education as frequently as This American Life.

And it’s fascinating that there’s so much new attention on the school integration issue lately after so many years of disinterest. Some of it’s coming from the media (including a new HBO series by David Simon later this month). Here are just a sampling of recent stories: New Tool Maps School Attendance Zones (EdWeek); Can Gentrification and School Integration Go Hand in Hand? (Atlantic); Does America Still Believe in Racial Integration? The Atlantic); Segregation and Its Impacts on Latino Education and Earnings (Washington Monthly);  50 Years After The Civil Rights Act, Integration Remains Elusive (Forbes).