Buried in the course of the Could 14 Seattle Faculty Board assembly, there was a startling revelation. Board members and district workers made clear who they suppose is guilty for Seattle Public Colleges’ challenges: mother and father.
Throughout a dialogue about enrollment practices, there was shockingly little mentioned concerning the 2,700 college students left on waitlists final yr — greater than 400 of whom finally left the district, costing SPS as much as $12 million in misplaced income. As a substitute, Director Evan Briggs claimed the true drawback was “a sample of habits the place we react to the loudest voices.” Director of Enrollment Planning Faauu Manu agreed, saying the basis trigger was “privilege and entitlement” from the “voices heard again and again.”
In different phrases: The issue isn’t failed insurance policies or damaged programs — it’s the mother and father who advocate for Seattle’s kids.
This framing is as offensive as it’s inaccurate. Throughout the identical assembly, Chief Working Officer Fred Podesta admitted the district’s enrollment procedures are outdated and misaligned with present strategic targets — a problem that may have gone unaddressed have been it not for mum or dad advocacy.
Sadly, this wasn’t the primary time SPS management has forged mother and father as the issue. When mother and father from Queen Anne Elementary wrote letters voicing considerations about enrollment restrictions, Regional Govt Director James Mercer dismissed them invoking “privilege, energy, fairness, and equity.” Final fall, through social media, Director Liza Rankin likened mother and father advocating for change to Mothers for Liberty — a far-right group. Households from choice faculties, the Extremely Succesful Cohort and neighborhoods “north of the Ship Canal” are incessantly written off as too entitled, whereas mother and father from southeast faculties like Cleveland, Dunlap and Orca Okay-8 who’ve not too long ago lined as much as testify at board conferences are merely ignored. In 2020, former Director Chandra Hampson stated throughout a board assembly that oldsters of colour who testified in assist of the HCC program have been being “tokenized” by white mother and father.
Let’s be clear: Mother and father are usually not the issue — SPS management is.
Regardless of its said fairness targets, SPS has failed to enhance outcomes for the very college students it claims to heart. Tutorial outcomes for Black boys — SPS’ strategic precedence — haven’t improved, and in some areas, declined. SPS has constantly struggled to supply interpretation providers at public conferences, limiting participation for deaf and non-English-speaking mother and father. Most not too long ago, SPS uncared for to inform elementary faculties whose households certified for free meals.
In the meantime, mother and father from all neighborhoods and backgrounds have come collectively, holding leaders accountable and advocating for fairness, transparency and higher outcomes for all college students.
Mother and father have sought to amplify underrepresented voices by internet hosting rallies with audio system from throughout town, supporting households to testify at board conferences and serving to them navigate the cumbersome sign-up course of. Mother and father collected tales from immigrant and non-English-speaking households affected by opaque waitlist insurance policies to share with district leaders. It was mother and father who uncovered the district’s failure to inform faculties about free meal eligibility. Mother and father even performed a racial equity analysis of the now-defunct faculty closure plan (one thing SPS by no means did) revealing how the proposal would have disproportionately harmed communities of colour.
These mother and father aren’t entitled. They’re engaged. They’re doing the work the district needs to be doing. And as a substitute of being vilified, they need to be heard and seen as companions.
The sample of scapegoating from SPS leaders isn’t just disappointing — it’s disqualifying. If SPS management can’t have interaction the general public with out disgrace, dismissal, or identity-based division, they haven’t any enterprise working a public establishment.
At this essential second, we should demand higher. SPS must recruit a superintendent with the imaginative and prescient and braveness to alter the present path of the district, clear home and finish the politics of blame. In November, voters want to contemplate which Faculty Board candidates will embrace neighborhood dialogue and which is able to try to silence dissent.
Seattle wants leaders who hear and collaborate, not silence and punish. Leaders who observe fairness, not simply preach it. If we wish a public faculty system that really serves each scholar, we should maintain our leaders to a better commonplace.
