Sharonne Navas, co-founder and executive director of the Seattle-based Equity in Education Coalition. Photo courtesy of Navas.
Families and educators have peppered the debate about upcoming Seattle school closures with questions about equity and inclusion.
We turned to Sharonne Navas, co-founder and executive director of the Seattle-based Equity in Education Coalition, for her thoughts on the topic. The statewide civil rights coalition is focused on ensuring race and ZIP code are not the definers of student success.
The coalition’s concerns about Seattle Public Schools (SPS) school closures and equity center around several key issues, says Navas, including:
Disproportionate impact on marginalized communities: School closures often disproportionately affect low-income families and communities of color. These communities may rely more heavily on local schools for various supports beyond education, such as meals, healthcare, and social services.
Access to education: Closing schools in certain neighborhoods can make it harder for students to access education. Families may face increased transportation challenges, leading to longer commutes, higher costs, and decreased participation in school activities.
Quality of education: When schools close, students are often relocated to other schools, which can lead to overcrowding. Overcrowded classrooms can strain resources and negatively impact the quality of education.
Long-term consequences: The long-term effects of school closures on students’ academic performance and socio-emotional development are significant concerns. Disruptions caused by closures can have lasting impacts on students’ educational trajectories.”
Here’s what else Navas had to say in a recent email interview.
Seattle’s Child (SC): Tell us about your equity concerns.
Sharonne Navas (SN): The major concern is that we are going to go back to a busing system of education where we place our Black, Brown, and Indigenous students in “well-resourced” school buildings, which we know through data, are high-income white schools.
Then we are going to assume that our kids are going to do well because of their proximity to whiteness in those schools. And we are going to ignore the devastating effect of closing a community anchor institution because of the decision of adults at the Stanford Building in Georgetown.
There is plenty of data that shows that children of color, when moved into a white school, have trauma and question their own identity because we fail to support them throughout the transition.
The EEC questions why low-income schools are not highly resourced instead of moving our children like they are expendable. We should be putting more money into low-income schools and making decisions of budgeting based on what students need, not what ZIP code or level of property tax is paid into the system.
SC: How can SPS ensure that all students are better served amid closures?
SN: To ensure that less-advantaged students and their families are better served when their school closes and they are moved to a well-resourced school, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) can take several steps. (To see the coalition’s list of needed SPS actions check out the fuller version of this article, “Equity in education,” online at 3Seattleschild.com.)
Our concern is that the “well-resourced” schools are not going to be well-equipped to support and build the assets of our kids. We know that 90% of the teacher corps is white and 81% female.
Increasing the number of students at a well-resourced school, by closing another school, will cost SPS money. That money could easily go into the under-resourced school to elevate that school’s level of programming and leave our children in their neighborhoods, with their community and their families.
SC: What must SPS do to ensure programs for the most vulnerable students stay in place — including meal and cultural heritage programs?
SN: The school district must ensure transparency and engagement by creating a process for deciding which schools are to close.
SPS must ensure that affected communities have a voice in these decisions as crucial for equity.
There is too much history of SPS only listening to the white higher-income voices that can meet decision-making officials at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday because they don’t have to work, whereas our families have jobs, in some instances, several jobs, that don’t allow them to go to a meeting that is convenient for the staff but not convenient for families and parents.
Also, SPS needs to ensure transparency by holding community meetings in community centers with childcare, food, and language support so that affluent English-speaking parents aren’t the only ones who get heard.
