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Schools In Travis County Are Not Just Segregated. They& #39;re The Most Segregated In The State.
A new study from @IUPRA shows that Black, Hispanic and White students in @AustinISD and Trav Co have drastically different experiences at school https://www.kut.org/post/schools-travis-county-are-not-just-segregated-theyre-most-segregated-state">https://www.kut.org/post/scho...
A new study from @IUPRA shows that Black, Hispanic and White students in @AustinISD and Trav Co have drastically different experiences at school https://www.kut.org/post/schools-travis-county-are-not-just-segregated-theyre-most-segregated-state">https://www.kut.org/post/scho...
Which is remarkable, bc Austin is set up to be incredibly integrated if people wanted that. 55% of students live in poverty (and most of the AISD students living in poverty are Black and Hispanic) so we COULD go into every school and see a 50/50 split.
But the reality is even though white students are only 1/3 of AISD, they congregate where most other kids are white and from a family not using free/reduced lunch. Black and Latino students are in schools together. The gap between these two experiences was the WORST in the state
Valerie Sterne worked on this research. She also was a teacher and administrator in @AustinISD and saw this segregation first hand:
“I think that we have some deep-seated racism in our city that we’re not addressing. I think white people in this town have been giving ourselves a pass for generations. We’ve been saying we’re a progressive city and not looking in the mirror at what our actions are.”
After the study was released in June, @GinaForAustin hosted a panel on FB to talk about it.
@terrancelgreen said that EVERYONE is complicit:
“You don’t have to do anything to cause segregation to perpetuate, all you have to do is follow business as usual and it will continue.”
@terrancelgreen said that EVERYONE is complicit:
“You don’t have to do anything to cause segregation to perpetuate, all you have to do is follow business as usual and it will continue.”
And that business as usual is buying a home “where the schools are good”, in Austin using the transfer policy to live in one neighborhood but go to a school somewhere else. This is all accepted as good parenting. But Sterne’s research show it harms low income students of color.
During that panel, @shawley03 said this segregation is bad for everyone:
“White children are being cheated. We think, & #39;Oh, they’ve got the best programs, the best classes and the most experienced teachers,& #39; but they are not experiencing the world as it is.“
“White children are being cheated. We think, & #39;Oh, they’ve got the best programs, the best classes and the most experienced teachers,& #39; but they are not experiencing the world as it is.“
“They’re thinking they’re superior because when they go to AP classes and they’re the only ones there, and they look and see who is being punished, they get the sense of entitlement, and I want to call it a psychosis that somehow there is something inherently superior in them.”