Here’s what’s missing from the fallout over the latest SF school board scandal, #whats #missing #fallout #latest #SF #school #board #scandal Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
It’s been just over two weeks since San Francisco school board member Ann Hsu commented about a candidate survey school board ahead of the November election sparked a stir and calls for her resignation.
When asked how she would improve the educational outcomes of marginalized students, Hsu wrote that a challenge “particularly in the black and brown community” is a “lack of family support” and a “lack of encouragement from parents to commit to learning.” to concentrate”.
Hsu, a former tech who was appointed to the school board by Mayor London Breed in March and whose experience in education, which stems almost entirely from having children in public school, managed to perpetuate the weathered stereotype that parents of marginalized youth do not value education.
Hsu has since apologized several times. She has even admitted that it was based on her own “inherent biases.” And on Tuesday, when the school board voted to reprimand her, Hsu voted in favor of the action.
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But in the frenzied battle that has become routine when another scandal breaks out in San Francisco — with political factions taking the moment to reprimand their enemies and defend their allies — not enough oxygen has been given to them. Why Hsu’s answer was problematic.
First, it’s just not true. Black and brown parents to do urging their children to achieve academic success, despite the educational system being designed to prevent them from achieving it.
A Survey July 2020 the National Center for Education Statistics found that black and Hispanic parents were just as involved in their children’s education as white parents, with 88% of black parents and 87% of Latino parents saying they attended a general school or attended PTA meeting.
Randy Seriguchi Jr., executive director of the local Black-led nonprofit Urban Ed Academy, which works to diversify the teaching profession, sees these numbers reflected in real life. Urban Ed was founded in 2010 as a ‘Saturday School’ program where marginalized elementary school students received extra tutoring in math, reading and other subjects.
Hundreds of children took part in the program during its six years, “mainly black boys,” Seriguchi said. “This idea that black and brown parents don’t care about school is immediately disproved by the fact that so many were willing to give their children four hours a day to Saturday school.”
Saturday School ended in 2016, but Urban Ed has continued to create programs such as Smart+ and Focus on Continued Success, both of which give marginalized students extra class time to study science, math, and other subjects. And these programs are still open to parents of more than 600 students in San Francisco alone, according to Urban Ed’s 2020 Annual Report. report.
Despite the best efforts of parents, shocking skill gaps remain between white students and students of color, such as: a performance analysis released in June by the San Francisco Unified School District. The causes are ancient inequalities that date back to before America was a nation.
“The story goes back to when (black people) came here in 1619 and how from 1619, especially around education, the aim was to keep the slave uneducated and ignorant … because a smart slave was one to be reckoned with ,” said Brett Andrews, co-chair of the SF-based Black Leadership Council. “Black and brown people value education in a way that matches all the ways it was not historically offered or presented to us in the same way the general population received it.”
Black children were banned from public schools in California as part of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1852. San Francisco opened the state’s first segregated school for black children two years later, and in 1860 California codified a ban on black, Asian, and American Indian students attending public schools with white students. It wasn’t until the 1880s that California really began to repeal some of its anti-black and anti-Asian education laws, but today “tens of thousands of students are currently attending segregated schools, including many who are disproportionately black,” according to The Chronicle’s reporting of a UCSF study.
School populations are shaped by the demographics of the areas around them. And because local property taxes go toward school financing in California, the more affluent the neighborhood a family lives in, the more likely their children are to have access to high-performing, well-equipped schools.
But, as the state reparations task force has reported at length, California has a sordid history of using racially restrictive agreements, relining, urban renewal, and outright violence to prevent non-white people from taking root in these communities.
We see that history today in San Francisco. According to a study by the Bay Area Stock Atlas, 164 of the Bay Area’s more than 1,500 censuses are concentrated areas of white wealth, and more than half of these segregated neighborhoods are in San Francisco.
This disparity in wealth levels is fueled by the modern racial pay gap in California. According to the California Civil Rights Department, among private employers with 100 or more employees, black and Hispanic people are overrepresented among the lowest paid, while white and Asian people tend to be the highest paid.
All of these trendlines converge in the classroom, where historically marginalized families are still forced to make do with less.
In that questionnaire, Hsu was asked about differences in academic results and tried to explain why they exist. She gets an F for effort because blaming parents shifts the focus from systemic injustices that allow the differences to exist in the first place.
The truth is that black and brown parents have always worked to address them. They just rarely get the credit they deserve.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Justin Phillips appears on Sunday. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @JustMrPhillips
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