Read on Twitter
Yesterday, I tweeted about BOE candidate Sezin Palmer’s behavior toward a black woman when discussing the topic of segregation, and her dismissal of the idea of white privilege. /1
Jerry, @ADKJerBear, defended Ms. Palmer and churlishly demanded I give him solutions and answers. To what? I guess he’s talking about housing policy, opportunity gaps in education, and how to improve outcomes in education for low-income students. /2
All of that is beside the point of my original tweet, and we all know it’s just a deflection away from her indefensible behavior. /3
I don’t take kindly to men ordering me around. @ADKJerBear doesn’t really want to hear the solutions he’s demanding I provide. And I don’t answer to him. /4
However, if anyone is interested, here is some reading material that covers the topics in question: /5
On achieving equity in education: http://neatoday.org/2013/05/28/is-america-ready-to-talk-about-equity-in-education-2/
More on equity from the Education Trust @EdTrust : https://edtrust.org/resource/aiming-for-equity/
On the negative effects of concentrated poverty in schools: https://cepa.stanford.edu/news/concentration-poverty-american-schools
On how housing policy creates segregation and how to fix it: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2016/12/15/294374/the-united-states-history-of-segregated-housing-continues-to-limit-affordable-housing/
Piece by @nhannahjones on why busing didn’t work (spoiler: it’s because white people didn’t want it to): https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/opinion/sunday/it-was-never-about-busing.html
Finally, let’s tie this in to redistricting. Redistricting won’t achieve true equity. No one said it would. But when $ and classroom space are finite and insufficient, we must use classroom resources and supports more efficiently. /6
When a reading specialist in a Title I school (such as Swansfield) has a caseload of say, 100, and a reading specialist in a nearby school (such as Clarksville ES) has 10, we’re overloading one way too much. If we had $ and space to hire 9 more for SES, /7
the problem may be solved, but we don’t have that much $ and classroom space at SES. So by redistricting to nearby CES, as Dr. Martirano’s plan did, we use the existing specialists more efficiently. /8
The added transpo $ for redistricting is much cheaper than salaries for more personnel and physical space added to schools across the highest-need areas of the county. /9
In a perfect world, we’d have all the $ we need to get class sizes down, universal pre-K, more support staff, etc. But we don’t. Redistricting was an attempt to work with what we have more efficiently. It won’t achieve equity, but moves the needle closer. /10
Folks like Sezin wanted HCPSS to “improve don’t move.” But we do not have the $ to truly improve. She wanted to keep the status quo, which leaves some schools overloaded and others underloaded. Not efficient or fair. /11
Given that District 4 has some of the neediest AND some of the wealthiest schools in HoCo, I simply cannot support someone who thinks the status quo is preferable. /12
Nor can I support someone who refuses to believe segregation and white privilege exist and condescends to a black woman who tries to explain that yes, it does. /13
Ms. Palmer has demonstrated that keeping River Hill schools as they are is her goal. She has yet to offer any viable solutions for helping high-needs schools in her district given the current budget realities. /14
BOE membership is about more than just redistricting. And District 4 is about more than just River Hill. /end
