I feel for you, Lorax. I know that you have your heart to the pulse of what is happening in your community and these weird closures and moves seem just plain wrong! I used to clean houses for the upper middle class in Seattle ten years ago. Few of them sent their children to public school. The few whose children were in public school-when their child hit junior high, there was no question; on to private. For years I heard about the state of SPS's; bad schools plagued with busing/choice schools, not getting your 'local' school', then back to local availability but not in the class you wanted, etc. It just all seemed like whining to me. Seattle, the place where people can't seem to agree on anything. Transportation, maybe. Monorail, maybe. Decent schools, maybe. Pleasing everyone means no on is pleased.
I moved here during HS from East Coast. I lived in Kitsap county . But, I remember in the early 80's Seattle was a collection of very distinct neighborhoods. You just didn't go to the CD unless you knew someone of color. I moved into some squatty apartment on Summit in Cap.Hill and it was a roach infested run down. So much of the city was crumbling. Poverty seeped in from below 15th over to MLK to Rainer and on. Dangerous things happened on 23rd and Yesler. 'The Facts' newspaper catered to Blacks and the White people kept to themselves. Literally.
There is a long suffering upper mid class thing going on in this area. Despite the hipster cool folk who live around now, I imagine a lot of parents to be children of the separate mentality who can't help but be NIMBY's. Seattle has always been pretty dang White. The power of the people. You are right to feel that there is racism unspoken of. That's how folks do it around here. It's called passive aggressive. They'll hint all around at what they really feel but Never put a name to it.
Personally, I'm glad there are folks like you and LE in the trenches willing to speak the truth. They need it. Me, I'd rather go where the neighborhood school is what is happening. Even in Northshore, the 75 kids my dyad caters to are diverse with 34 having one or more parent born in another country who are bi or tri-lingual. It's not perfect in Nshore. But sometimes, as with SPS, I wonder if it is the highly educated parents and school board who just don't know who to please. I don't know. I just wonder.
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I enjoyed your post- you got me thinking about my own experiences navigating through as a young person growing up here and in the public schools, and now as an adult, re-entering that system in the role of teacher. I agree with you on the Seattle "passive aggressive" and the "yeah I'm liberal, but only on my specific terms" sort of vibe that is very much present here. And don't get me started on the viaduct situation!!! Let's make a decision and get moving! There's so many layers of issues going on with running of public schools, from equity, to the huge upcoming budget cuts, to coming to decsions about what schools should be teaching, and then how to assess that students learned the established standards... and on and on. All of these issues and more, balanced with families wanting to provide their child with the best opportunities. Growing up, I didn't know anyone who went to a private school. All my friends, neighbors and cousins went to public schools, and yeah some were in alternative programs, but still it was public. In my world, private schools weren't an option. Now, that I'm thinking about it, it wasn't until I got to college that I met friends who had gone to private schools in the past.
I still remember this moment with my mom in the car. I was highschool and we were at a stoplight, in Shoreline, right by Lakeside School. She said, "you know, if we were rich, I would of sent you there", pointing the heavily manicured college like campus. "Why is that?" I asked. "Because, it's a good school, and that where Bill Gates went..." she continued. Here was my mom, a liberal, white, middle class, public school advocate and supporter saying she would sent me to a private school if she could? She was expressing that she, as do all parents, want the best for their child. And everyone has the right to make that choice for their child. The question is: where's the justice in some people having more choices than others? Is that just the way it is? It's frustrating that we are having these same battles over and over again. What is the solution? What choices will I make for my own kids in the future?
God, LE, I am with you on this, too. You say, "where is the justice?" Is it just that because our society is capitalistic that we honor 'choices'?
My sister married RICH in Seattle and of course her children went to Lakeside before their drug problems of junior year. Two of three ended up, one in a 'lockdown HS in Idaho' where the parents have legality to do so, while the other went to a military school in upstate NY. Both those boys have big drug issues.
But, that is only one family.
What is valued within a family, does this point a child towards an equity minded education? Can a rich child succeed in a public school or a poor child in a public one? What kind of value have we been placing on wealth and success? I feel with the change in presidential administration and the stress of 'all opinions to be heard and discussed' that we may be on the road to recovery, here. If oligarchical and dynastical positions fall by the wayside (whatever spelling, you get my drift) I hope we will once again learn to value people for people's sake, not depending on where they went to school or what cars they drive.
Alfie Kohn has some great articles about this.
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