By Christie Perkins
A decision by Superintendent Carol Johnson in December to close or merge 18 Boston schools in predominately black and Latino neighborhoods, including Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan has prompted accusations of racism from a Massachusetts black education advocacy group.
The School Committee unanimously voted for the Redesign and Reinvent Plan December 15, 2010 in an attempt to save more than 100 schools from huge across-the-board budget cuts. With 5,600 empty seats in Boston classrooms and an estimated $63 million budget shortfall for next year, school committee members say the plan will save up to $10 million.
Unsatisfied with this, the Black Educators’ Alliance of Massachusetts filed a complaint Jan. 25 stating that the plan discriminates against black and Latino students by pointing out the disparity between the student makeup of the targeted schools and the rest of Boston Public Schools.
In the closing schools, the complaint noted that 46 percent of the students are black, 44 percent Latino and 5 percent white. In the entire BPS system only 36 percent are black, 41 percent Latino and 13 percent white. The US Department of Education is currently investigating the issue but has not yet come to a conclusion.
Northeastern Professor Holly Carter, who teaches Race and Urban Education, a class for prospective educators about the history of racism in public schools, said many of the buildings that Johnson proposes to close are in “atrocious” conditions and it is better to put the funds into education as opposed to the facilities. Carter said she hopes the new and merged schools will provide students with access to more resources than they have now.
“Change is always disruptive, but the Boston schools will try to mitigate it,” Carter said. “If it weren’t for the $63 million budget gap, one could easily raise these questions, but with these huge figures it really is a tremendous balancing act. I believe that Superintendent Johnson is doing the best she can. As a woman of color herself, I cannot envision her being discriminatory.”
In a statement, Johnson said “the truth is, the schools slated for closure were selected because they are among the lowest chosen by families, have been struggling academically, or are in facilities that are not up to par. Furthermore, we are expanding choices in higher-performing schools and turning around under-performing schools in the very communities in question. We would be doing a great disservice to continue to serve young people in these schools when we have better options available. Frankly, it would be more appropriate for us to be questioned of wrongdoing had we chosen to maintain the status quo.”
Dr. Mervin Lynch, a professor in the Northeastern School of Education and president of the New England Educational Research Organization, said the debate of whether or not the school closings are discriminatory is one best left to the federal government’s discretion. Lynch said he is more concerned that the city’s plan is to turn most of the closed schools into charter schools because he thinks they will increase class size and eliminate teacher positions in the BPS system.
“It is high time that the City of Boston look for real solutions and not charter schools as strawberry shortcuts,” Lynch said.
Abda Lee, a first grade teacher who has worked in the BPS for 15 years, said her school, Maurice J. Tobin K-8 School in Roxbury, was almost one of the schools proposed for closure. A few years ago, the Tobin was warned that it would be on probation for closure if it did not start improving its scores on the MCAS.
“It was a stressful year,” she said. “We just made it. The schools that didn’t [improve their MCAS scores enough] received a lot of funding to help them improve. They had enough money to hire tutors, buy supplies – whatever they needed to do. They had an enormous amount of support – I don’t know why they didn’t make it. Maybe they just needed more time.”
Lee said BPS faces many challenges, including students new to the US from other countries. It takes five to seven years to become academically proficient in a language, according to a study from the University of Toronto in 1981, and yet newcomers are still required to take the MCAS after just a year in the system.
“I understand closing the buildings that are in bad shape, but it doesn’t make sense to close the ones that are in good condition,” Lee said. “If we need to save money, stop busing the kids across the city and let them go to their neighborhood school. Use the money from the busing to give the children extra support academically.”
