Here in Seattle, we say gay. We support trans kids. We don’t ban books. We don’t privatize schools. Instead, we want our kids to learn the values of equity, racial justice, and universal inclusion in great public schools. We know that institutionalized racism has severely impacted the education of students of color, particularly Black boys, and this is a problem that needs to be solved.
We also believe that equity requires democracy. Public schools are essential because the community’s voice must be at the center of all decisions, especially those communities who have suffered from marginalization and oppression. In a financial crisis, after a pandemic, the voice of the community becomes more important than ever before.
Seattle Public Schools is in crisis. After facing a deficit of more than $100 million, the district balanced the 2023-24 budget by making cuts and liquidating the $42 million Economic Stabilization Fund. Yet the projected budget deficit for the following 2024-2025 school year is at least $53 million. And since the Economic Stabilization Fund has already been liquidated, we need the community to come together to help decide how to solve it. The district claims it can save $28 million by closing as many as 20 public schools before the 2024-25 school year. We have no way to know whether this is true.
More importantly, nobody asked the community whether this is an appropriate way to address the district’s financial needs. Though the closures will be announced by this October, there has been zero community engagement about whether we want to close schools. Instead of partnering with SPS families, district administrators are making the decisions while planning only cursory engagement with the communities that may be affected.
As of July 2023, the only public engagement proposed during this process is one around defining “well-resourced schools,” with the implication that this conversation will inform district administrators as they make the decisions about school closures. In addition to being insufficient, these meetings have been planned to occur in August, when many families are busy and disconnected from their school communities. In short, it looks like they’re just going to impose school closures on us.
This is just one example of a growing trend of the school district shutting the public out of key decisions. Recent changes to district governance, including eliminating many of the district’s standing committees that would have provided more opportunities for public discussion and input makes it harder for our progressive community to be aware of and challenge the decisions of the school board and the district administration.
Cuts to local journalism have badly eroded the media’s ability to cover the schools, which only makes it easier for the district to run roughshod over community values. Progressive parents have fewer outlets to learn about what happens at our schools, and because four of the seven school board directors don’t hold community meetings, fewer ways to hold the district accountable.
In response, a group of progressive Seattle parents came together to fill the void. Robert Cruickshank, Beth Day, and Jane Tunks Demel got this site up and running.