Buried in the course of the Could 14 Seattle College Board assembly, there was a startling revelation. Board members and district workers made clear who they assume is accountable 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 12 months — greater than 400 of whom in the end left the district, costing SPS as much as $12 million in misplaced income. As an alternative, Director Evan Briggs claimed the actual drawback was “a sample of conduct the place we react to the loudest voices.” Director of Enrollment Planning Faauu Manu agreed, saying the foundation trigger was “privilege and entitlement” from the “voices heard again and again.”
In different phrases: The issue isn’t failed insurance policies or damaged techniques — it’s the mother and father who advocate for Seattle’s youngsters.
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Throughout the identical assembly, Chief Working Officer Fred Podesta admitted the district’s enrollment procedures are outdated and misaligned with present strategic targets — a difficulty that might have gone unaddressed had been it not for mother or father advocacy.
Sadly, this wasn’t the primary time SPS management has solid mother and father as the issue. When mother and father from Queen Anne Elementary wrote letters voicing issues about enrollment restrictions, Regional Govt Director James Mercer dismissed them invoking “privilege, energy, fairness, and equity.” Final fall, by way of social media, Director Liza Rankin likened mother and father advocating for change to Mothers for Liberty — a far-right group. Households from possibility colleges, the Extremely Succesful Cohort and neighborhoods “north of the Ship Canal” are regularly written off as too entitled, whereas mother and father from southeast colleges like Cleveland, Dunlap and Orca Okay-8 who’ve just lately 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 help of the HCC program had been being “tokenized” by white mother and father.
Let’s be clear: Mother and father usually are 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 middle. Tutorial outcomes for Black boys — SPS’ strategic precedence — haven’t improved, and in some areas, declined. SPS has persistently struggled to supply interpretation providers at public conferences, limiting participation for deaf and non-English-speaking mother and father. Most just lately, SPS uncared for to inform elementary colleges 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 colleges about free meal eligibility. Mother and father even performed a racial equity analysis of the now-defunct college 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 is not only 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 important second, we should demand higher. SPS must recruit a superintendent with the imaginative and prescient and braveness to vary the present course of the district, clear home and finish the politics of blame. In November, voters want to contemplate which College Board candidates will embrace neighborhood dialogue and which is able to try to silence dissent.
Seattle wants leaders who pay attention and collaborate, not silence and punish. Leaders who follow fairness, not simply preach it. If we wish a public college system that really serves each pupil, we should maintain our leaders to a better normal.
