It's possible to complain without being a racist. So do it.

I've written several times about the tricky issue of being a relatively affluent white homeowner-taxpayer with children in Atlanta public schools. It's tricky because Atlanta schools basically suck, and the Atlanta Public School system, despite the efforts of the above-average but certainly not superhuman Bev Hall, is overpopulated with administrators who are just not very good at what they do.

But if you complain about the poor statistical performance of the district, or the inability of administrators to compose a sentence in clear English, then you're just racist, and that's all there is to it.

But it's not really a race-based problem. It's such a simple economics problem, really, that the only way race could sneak into and subsequently come to dominate the conversation is if the accusers were poorly educated and unsophisticated citizens; products of, for example, a low-performing municipal school system.

It's a perfect feedback loop. Kids go into the execrable Georgia public schools and emerge poorly educated and with a deeply unrealistic idea of the kind of effort and performance required to be successful in the larger world. Those kids eventually trickle up into every part of our public bureaucracy, from the DMV to the school system. The schools never get better, and the next generation of kids graduates no better-equipped than their predecessors.

The reason it's an economics problem is because (a) Atlanta public schools, although they pay better than suburban schools, carry with them large disincentives to talented teachers, such as poor parent participation, lax disciplinary standards, etc; (b) teacher unions and municipal job contracts protect weak and incompetent employees who would be flushed out in the private sector; and (c) even if we could solve (a) and (b) with the application of more money, which we can't, there is no possibility of further City of Atlanta property tax increases in the near term to fund school initiatives, nor is the Georgia Legislature likely to shift that burden to other taxes.

(You could argue, as I would, that no more money should be necessary on top of the $13,150 per year per student we're already spending (more than $4k above the state average), but it's a moot issue because no more money is coming, period).

But it becomes a race problem because the majority of the people complaining are white and the majority of the people hearing the complaints are black.

I can take it if it's the DMV. I can take it if it's somebody in Watershed Management. (And it is, by the way). But this is my kid we're talking about, so no, I'm not going to just go with the flow.