Students, community fight plan to re-segregate Boston schools

Boston’s communities of color are fighting back against attempts by the city and the School Committee, appointed by the mayor, to dismantle desegregation and return to racist, segregated “walk-to” or “neighborhood” schools. The latest attack is a plan entitled “Pathways to Excellence” put forth by the School Department, which runs the schools.

It calls for closing at least 10 Boston schools–eight of them in communities of color in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park. School closings in communities of color have occurred ever since the beginning of court-ordered desegregation in 1974, which forced a disproportionate transportation burden onto these children. The new plan would compound this inequity.

The plan calls for increasing the “walk-to school preference” from the current 50-50–with half the students living within walking distance–to 60-40. That ratio reduces access to far away schools for children whose community schools are slated for closing.

The mayor stated in January that he would champion the return to neighborhood schools and called for the superintendent to come up with a plan to bring it about.

When the plan was presented to the School Committee meeting on Oct. 15, parents and students from the community and from schools slated to close came out in force to oppose it.

Moving testimony was given by elementary and secondary school students about how important their schools are to them and why they shouldn’t be closed. Representatives of the Boston Parents Organizing Network, the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts and the Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union, Steelworkers Local 8751 challenged the discriminatory plan. Their mobilizing forced the committee to delay its vote on the plan from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5.

On Oct. 21 City Councilor Chuck Turner, chair of the Education Committee of the Boston City Council, held a public hearing on the plan. Prior to the hearing, Turner had sent a memo to the school superintendent asking for data proving how closing a preponderance of schools in communities of color and decreasing access to schools outside those communities by means of a 60-40 walk-to preference should not be considered discriminatory.

The Black Educators Association of Massachusetts called for an impact analysis of the plan in position papers presented at both the School Committee meeting and the City Council hearing. BEAM demanded that no vote be taken by the School Committee without such an analysis showing what effect the changes would have on equity of access to quality programs by all Boston school children. Boston Parents Organizing Network and the Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union similarly called for no vote to be taken until such an impact study was presented and adequate time given to respond to it.

School bus driver Stevan Kirschbaum, who has driven children to desegregated schools since 1974, pointed out that the same racist forces that threw stones at Black children in 1974 are behind the current moves to return to racist, segregated, unequal schools under the code words “walk-to” or “neighborhood” schools.

Students and parents again swamped the Oct. 29 School Committee meeting. The School Department announced that the 60-40 proposal was off the table and that three schools in Dorchester–from which students had mobilized for the prior meeting–would not be closed. Nevertheless, the plan continues to reflect 80 percent of school closings in communities of color.

On Nov. 1, BEAM held a community meeting in Roxbury where members explained their programs to change School Department policies and close the achievement gap. They emphasized that no vote should be taken until the School Department comes forth with the necessary impact data and the community has a chance to respond.

City Councilors Turner and Charles Yancey both addressed the meeting, which was well attended by community activists. The Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union had a strong delegation, including President Frantz Mendes and Chief Steward Andre Francois. Miya Campbell of FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together) urged students and youth to mobilize to stop the vote on Nov. 5.