School District Changes Removes Magnolia’s Fabled “Comfort Zone”

School District Changes Removes Magnolia’s Fabled “Comfort Zone”
P. Scott Cummins © 2005 The Urbane R

The stream of announcements describing ever-evolving proposals from the financially shaky Seattle School District can be (charitably) described as utter retrenchment. The district line goes: “While the discussion on school consolidation and student assignment began as a response to a projected $20 million budget gap in 2006-2007, it has transformed into a deep examination of how Seattle Public Schools can best serve its students and families so that every student succeeds.”

Now that is some major spin. But to his credit, Superintendent Raj Manhas admits that the issues are “controversial, complex, challenging, and emotional.”

What it gets down to is this: the vast majority of Queen Anne and Magnolia parents are getting their wish for neighborhood schools. See that school closest to where you live? That’s your school. You go there. Just like in the old days.

Mind you there is a little more flexibility in the plan than that - your “cluster” consists of the three schools closest to your home. But the effect is certain. The vast majority of those bright yellow school buses will be history. Getting your child to school will mean variations on the theme of “they walk or you drive.” I predict more bicycle racks at the community center.

But what does this mean in the larger analysis? Magnolia has 19,000 people, according to the Census Bureau. And 87% of us (including me) are white. 17% are under age eighteen – that’s over 3,000 children. But Magnolia is having a baby boom these days, and 1,000 of those kids are under age five.

The issue is about the 2,000 school-age kids who eat, study, hang out – and have a roof over their heads - in Magnolia. Around 300 attend Lawton K-5 Elementary; while 500 attend Catharine Blaine K-8. And about another 300 attend the private Our Lady of Fatima K-8. Given that almost half of the public school children enrolled in Magnolia schools live outside of Magnolia, those numbers jibe with the anecdote that over half of Magnolia’s school children attend private school.

This year marks the beginning of the sixth decade since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling - declaring racial division in the classroom unconscionable, invidious and unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote: "We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does...We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
Given that in Magnolia 87% - almost 17,000 of the 19,000 people living here are white – we are not a diverse community. Since Lawton and Blaine’s student populations are 71% and 67% white respectively, it is obvious that whatever racial diversity present in our school communities will largely disappear along with those yellow buses.

Our civil rights laws do not require the “intent” of prejudice in order trigger scrutiny, only its “effect” need be felt. So, what to do? First of all, let’s come up with new ideas that can begin to accomplish what busing was never able to do: bring diversity into our community. Some of those ideas can be done quickly – like establishing more than a “token” number of ability to pay incentive scholarships at private schools – institutions which need to make real commitment that their enrollments reflect the broader (in Seattle, that means 30% non-white) population. And both our private and public schools can develop marketing plans to do enrollment outreach via advertisements in media reaching ethnic, racial and gender-based minority groups.

Other ideas are long term in scope. But they can work on Queen Anne and Magnolia, because peoples’ hearts are in the right place. Many local church and service groups have done Habitat for Humanity projects over the years. A man I know in Magnolia has actually taken his involvement to a whole new level, serving as coordinator on projects year after year. But that work has taken place largely, if not exclusively, outside of our neighborhood. So why not combine the enthusiasm for that work - with innovative housing initiatives right here in our community – modeling our efforts on Kulshan Community Land Trust in Bellingham? Kulshan is a private, non profit community organization that buys land in residential areas at market prices. The program then holds the land in trust. The next “homeowner” actually buys the house only. The resale “profit” is based on an agreed-upon formula to provide a fair return to the seller – while insuring that the home will remain affordable to the next low-income buyer participating in the program.

Large urban areas like Seattle and San Francisco have too long relied upon the patience of (largely) minority families - sending their children on imponderably long bus rides in search of an unfulfilled promise of reconciliation and acceptance. The Seattle School District has clearly signaled that the era of panacea is over. Kids should be kids, not commuters. It is time for us adults to grow up - and take on the challenge of encouraging diversity in our community.