If this is happening in the forgotten zipcodes of my old stomping grounds.... what is going on in yours?

kampcouture (33)in #education • 7 years ago (edited)

I want to share a part of our life, our past, before we decided moving our family back to my home town was vital. It should explain why school choice is so important for certain communities. We lived in Kansas City Missouri, and no Dorothy wasn’t our neighbor, we saw no Wizards, but there were many evil witches and flying monkeys disguised as state representatives.
With a population that hugs nearly 2.3 million people, deep rooted racism and a slow moving recovery from the great white flight – look it up, access to quality education always lands as runner up to streetcars and drinking districts.

Let's talk about it.

For 40 years public, private and charter schools have struggled to stay afloat and provide quality education to the youth of that city. Our house was smack dab in the middle of the Hickman Mills school district. A district that doesn’t even hold partial accreditation. What that means is high school students graduate these public schools with a GED, and they're funded with federal dollars (double what performing schools receive per student). I will give you a moment to let that sink in.

In this school district, it sits right between 3 highly performing public school districts but thanks to an amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act, students must stay in the district they are residents of as long as the district holds “provisional accreditation”. It is no secret that Missouri’s standard of education has always been dismal.
Everyone who straddles the Stateline between Kansas and Missouri will usually always decide to live in Kansas – particularly Johnson County because they offer the best public education in the country. However, not everyone is privileged enough to be able to afford to live in that county. Thanks to the rising cost of living, gentrification of lower income areas, lack of job diversity, the dollars diminishing purchase power and the unmended racial division between the "haves" and "have-nots", education equality gets lost in the shuffle.

Last year, after reaching endless dead ends with the district, I reached out to the Missouri Department of Education and had the luxury of speaking to the Director of School Improvement for Kansas City schools, Tony Stansburry. I was discussing with him my concern about the lack of physical activity for lower grades as it came to my attention that many grades were no longer receiving recess and the top 3 reasons were 1. teachers had arthritis, or other physical limitations that made them not want to, 2. teachers were breastfeeding and 3. the remaining teachers had routine meetings every day during recess. So the alternative provided the youngsters is sitting at their desks and watching Disney movies. They aren’t afforded the access to even an indoor recess that allows them to burn some extra energy.
Because of the lack of recess there was a sustained spike in behavior issues, as punishment the teachers continued to send home excessive homework for their grade levels and the educational burn out felt by these young learners was both alarming and depressing. I discussed with him, how these kids are barked at from the minute they walk into school like they are in a military boot camp and not a learning institution, how the halls resemble prison over elementary, something needed to change and I was here advocating for them to make sure it happened. The director’s response to me was terrifying. “I understand that young women have unrealistic passions but you must understand the limitations this district faces because of its demographic. They come from broken homes where they see things that disturb their daily function and ability to learn and don’t get me started on the socioeconomic situation of majority of the student body”. I was silent. I had to gain my composure because I couldn’t believe I was hearing from an over-privileged white man that he was blaming the administrative abuse towards the student body on their blackness and their low income. Every school district deals with poverty and deals with domestic disturbances. The difference is in predominantly white schools they also have life transition programs and guidance counselors which this district does not offer. And even if some students are coming from broken backgrounds, that is even more of a reason to provide them with a learning environment that offers kindness, respect, consistency and access to relieving built up energy.. instead they are punished for their skin color and the income levels of their parents.

This particular districts Superintendent received a promotion to work for a highly performing school district. Since revamping this district was his brain child, with a projected 5 year plan that he was bailing out of 2 years in.. I became deeply interested in the actual performance increases under his supervision. He hung his boastful success on a school program called Compass. Its a education initiative within the school district that picks and pulls students at grade level performance, with teacher recommendation and nearly perfect attendance to transfer to a learning program that reflects what majority of fully accredited, highly performing schools districts offer ALL their students. The superintendent uses this program as an example of this entire district when it is actually a reflection of just a program that favors the “savable” few. The remaining students are subjected to a pipeline to prison prep school to ensure future prison populations in the downtown for profit jails. The district has already planned on losing many teachers and principals in 2016/2017, but now the superintendent is on the list. A mass hiring fair is under way but the district sits concerned as no one is applying. Everyone with the opportunity to leave is jumping ship while the students remain modern day slaves to a failing school system that refuses to allow them access to performing and quality education, because these Title-1 districts cloak its excess of federal funding under the guise of an improvement initiative.
Each school day students begrudgingly march into these failing schools, bound by the invisible shackles placed on their ankles by those who preach they are invested in their success, holding them captive to their zip code and ensuring the cycle of poverty continues while robbing them from access to quality education – quite literally the only opportunity some of these students have.

So what is the solution?

My personal belief is this mafia-esq city could benefit greatly from the freedom of school choice. While many are screaming against it ... I stand on the side of the invisible, the forgotten, the voiceless.. the children trapped by amendments, bound by zipcodes, all because state representatives and school officials enjoy abusing the bloated funding cushioning their paychecks.