Buried in the course of the Could 14 Seattle College Board assembly, there was a startling revelation. Board members and district employees made clear who they assume is accountable for Seattle Public Faculties’ challenges: dad and mom.
Throughout a dialogue about enrollment practices, there was shockingly little stated concerning the 2,700 college students left on waitlists final yr — 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 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 methods — it’s the dad and mom 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Throughout the identical assembly, Chief Working Officer Fred Podesta admitted the district’s enrollment procedures are outdated and misaligned with present strategic targets — a problem that might have gone unaddressed have been it not for dad or mum advocacy.
Sadly, this wasn’t the primary time SPS management has solid dad and mom as the issue. When dad and mom from Queen Anne Elementary wrote letters voicing issues about enrollment restrictions, Regional Government Director James Mercer dismissed them invoking “privilege, energy, fairness, and equity.” Final fall, by way of social media, Director Liza Rankin likened dad and mom 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 dad and mom from southeast faculties like Cleveland, Dunlap and Orca Okay-8 who’ve 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 have been being “tokenized” by white dad and mom.
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 middle. Educational outcomes for Black boys — SPS’ strategic precedence — haven’t improved, and in some areas, declined. SPS has persistently struggled to offer interpretation providers at public conferences, limiting participation for deaf and non-English-speaking dad and mom. Most lately, SPS uncared for to inform elementary faculties whose households certified for free meals.
In the meantime, dad and mom 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 the 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 dad and mom who uncovered the district’s failure to inform faculties about free meal eligibility. Mother and father even carried out 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 dad and mom 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 interact the general public with out disgrace, dismissal, or identity-based division, they haven’t any enterprise operating a public establishment.
At this important second, we should demand higher. SPS must recruit a superintendent with the imaginative and prescient and braveness to alter 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 and silence dissent.
Seattle wants leaders who hear and collaborate, not silence and punish. Leaders who apply fairness, not simply preach it. If we would like a public college system that actually serves each scholar, we should maintain our leaders to a better commonplace.
