- The quality of a Seattle Schools education
<sigh>
Seattle Public Schools, ya’ll need some help right now.
You just don’t get it.
Now, I know you can be slow to learn new things, Kind of ironic, but, I’m going to do my best to come down to your level and explain things to you as simply as I can.
Racism here is alive and well, but its dressed up and covert. One practically has to go to school and get a degree to be able to not only recognize it, but explain it- because for many in positions of power, if we cannot define it and explain it and defend it to its most infinitesimal detail, then it must not exist.
It’s in body language and facial expressions. It’s in restaraunts, banks and grocery stores. It’s at work, it’s in laws and policies and practices for every entity that exists, including institutions like the Seattle School district.
Your favorite word? “Equity”. You just can’t seem to get enough of it. Everything is about equity (even though you fired your Equity Team).
But what is equity? We’re really talking about equality, and by equality I mean inequality, and by inequality I mean institutionalized/systemic racism.
Institutionalized racism is one of the biggest factors in the achievement gap, and don’t get it twisted, Seattle Schools definitely has an achievement gap.
Children of color are not achieving at the rates of their White counterparts throughout the city.
A money gap. An access gap. An equity gap. An equality gap.
For all your equity talk, you seem to have no clue what equity really is. So let me break it down at an are-you-smarter-than-an-SPS-student-educated-in-an-underfunded-south-end-school level for you:
“Treating people equally does not mean treating people the same; it means addressing each person’s individual needs with the equal vigor”.
“Treating people equally does not mean treating people the same; it means addressing each person’s individual needs with the equal vigor”.
“Treating people equally does not mean treating people the same; it means addressing each person’s individual needs with the equal vigor”.
“Treating people equally does not mean treating people the same; it means addressing each person’s individual needs with the equal vigor”.
(All my teachers growning up said they repreat the important stuff 3 times, so, I thought maybe if I repeated it for you at least 4 times, you might start to think harder.)
I’m probably getting ahead of myself, because the fact is, you’re not even at the level where you can say that you’re giving all kids in SPS a fair shake; students are not on equal footing, and that is directly related to where they live and what color they are and how you place them in your order of importance; you…the institution[alized racism].
You have to overcome the awesome challenges that children in poverty and children of color face every day (especially the ones you heap ontop of the challenges that already exist). You’re not doing that now, and we can all see that you’re not prepared to do it in the future.
Success never finds its way to those that need it the most. You’re tossing already starving kids of color bones and scraps to fight over, when what you should be doing is providing each with a 7 course meal.
”Treating people equally does not mean treating people the same; it means addressing each person’s individual needs with the equal vigor”.
For some reason, this point seems to be too subtle for far too many people to grasp. You wouldn’t think so– if someone has a broken leg, we give them a cast and crutches, right? But there must be something about this issue that smacks right into the American / progressive ideal of a “meritocracy” and renders folks blind to the compounded, concentrated, full-scale effort that is required to shift success narratives for low-income students of color. THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES, PEOPLE. It’s not easy but it certainly isn’t helped by changing the system every year and moving the goal posts around. Thanks for, as ever, speaking truth to power.
If you look at school reports from seattleschools.org, divide a school’s budget by the number of enrolled students.
Ballard, 65% white: $5356/student
Roosevelt, 61% white: $5372/student.
Rainier Beach, 6% white: $7076/ student.
A scholarly study of the racial achievement gap is “Black American students in an affluent suburb : a study of academic disengagement” by John U. Ogbu. SPL has a copy.
The conclusions were not popular so it was ignored, but interested individuals will find it enlightening.
So, are we to believe that the $1700 extra dollars per student at Ranier Beach is enough? Of course it is NOT NEARLY enough to make up for any difference in background opportunities, poverty, disability, and racism. What a joke. Let’s make the differential about $15,000. Given the same budget and total dollars, Ballard/Roosevelt would get say $3,000 per kid (or maybe $2,000), Ranier Beach would get $18,000. Boy oh boy would the crying begin. And just maybe, we’d see an increase in funding for education if that were to happen. Guts anyone?
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What utter BS..”institutional racism” indeed!
How come nobody talks about the REAL issue?
Lets look at the supposed “racial discrimination”
Seattle is 8.4% black, 5.3% latino, 13% asian, and over 70% white. Seattle schools on the other hand are much higher..22% black 12% latino, 22% asian.
Guess why?
Because every single parent who cares about their kids education, AND can afford it either goes private, or moves to the suburbs (like us). Why? Because unless you are lucky enough to win the lottery, and get into the few good schools, or the APP program, the other choices SUCK. I am not sacrificing my kids on the alter of political correctness, in the hope that the schools “may improve” if enough parents do.
Why do they suck? Class sizes are high, but most importantly, the curriculum is a mess. Instead of being challenging, classes are being taught at a much lower level. A shame really, since it has been proven time and again that if you set high expectation, that the kids will rise to them. The response is that these kids are poor..that they come from troubled homes..that they are behind, and need lots of remedial help. BULLCRAP!
What they need is high curriculum standard, teachers willing to push the bar, and parents who give a crap. Its certainly not about poverty..plenty of poor families work hard, push their kids academically, and send them to college. Happens all the time in immigrant communities. Heck, my parents came off the boat with $10 to their name 55 years ago. In this country, with hard work, anything is possible. Heck, look at President Obama!
Its not about race. Its about providing a high quality program that will attract BACK the countless parents who have fled the Seattle school system..and keep the ones still here. If that means closing the bad schools, and pouring resources into the good schools, so be it. If that means busing kids from poor neighborhoods to good schools in the north end, or consolidating, so be it.
In a truly “diverse” school, we would see a racial balance that approximates that of Seattle..about 9% black, 6% latino, 13% asian, 70% white. I can practically GUARANTEE that such a school would be solid. Instead, by concentrating the less fortunate kids, those schools are destined to failure, no matter how many resources you poor into them. Unfortunately, most parents who are fortunate enough to have a choice are not willing to wait for that failiure..so we vote with our feet.