Separate but Equal

GREENSBORO, Ga. - Nearly four decades after this rural Georgia county stopped segregating its schools by race, it wants to divide students again — this time by sex.

Greene County is set to become the first school district in the nation to go entirely single-sex, with boys and girls in separate classrooms — a move born of desperation over years of poor test scores, soaring dropout rates and high numbers of teenage pregnancies.

"At the rate we're moving, we're never going to catch up," Superintendent Shawn McCollough told parents in an impassioned speech last week. "If we're going to take some steps, let's take some big steps."

Maybe I am just too cynical, but I don't trust the government to educate boys and girls separately. I remember the bad old days before Title IX.

I believe that separate but equal is never equal, and I am convinced that this will be to the detriment of our girls.