DATE: Tuesday, June 24, 1997                TAG: 9706240008

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL  

TYPE: Editorial  

                                            LENGTH:   58 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** Our editorial about the Norfolk School Board stated that nonwhites make up 60 percent of the city's population. It should have said whites make up 60 percent of the population. Correction published Thursday, June 26, 1997 on page B12 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT. ***************************************************************** NORFOLK SCHOOL BOARD RACE IS A FACTOR

Should the composition of the Norfolk School Board reflect the racial makeup of the schools and of the city it serves? Norfolk Vice Mayor Herbert M. Collins Sr. and Councilman Paul R. Riddick, who are black, believe it should.

More than 60 percent of children in Norfolk public schools are nonwhite. School Board Chairman Ulysses Turner is black. Echoing sentiment among nonwhite Norfolk residents, who comprise 60 percent of the port city's inhabitants, Collins and Riddick want City Council to tilt membership of the board from three blacks and four whites to four blacks and three whites.

That would be a racial quota, which we oppose. But City Council maintains a de facto quota now. Councilman G. Conoly Phillips, who is white, told reporter Jon Glass that the seven-member elected council adheres to the existing ratio because it mirrors the council's racial balance.

For that reason alone, the issue raised by Collins and Riddick belongs on the table. President Clinton has called for a national conversation about how best to promote interracial harmony. The School Board's racial ratio should be discussed openly.

Federal, state and local governments, no less than corporations and other private-sector institutions, increasingly mirror the kaleidoscopic racial, ethnic and religious composition of the United States.

That this is so does not guarantee interracial, interethnic or interreligious peace. Nor does it assure enhanced performance or virtue. But working and living side by side, human beings are likely to see and treat each other as human beings, not as stereotypes.

A black-majority Norfolk School Board could perform as well or better or worse than the white-majority board. That whites are in the majority fosters the perception that whites retain control. Some may be reassured by that perception; others are not.

It's certainly true that the School Board's racial composition has long been a consideration in City Council's appointments; it led to expanded black representation.

Place of residence, no less than race, should figure in City Council's appointment decisions.

But neither factor should override intelligence, knowledge, interpersonal skills, judgment and ability to devote required time to overseeing an enterprise as fundamentally important as public education.

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