A Victory for Seattle Schools
The People Spoke, Loud and Clear
By now, many of you have heard that Seattle Public Schools has finally backed off on its ruinous plan to shutter schools next year. As I previous noted in “Seattle Schools’ Spectacular Failure” the board’s vision was based on two implicit and bizarre beliefs: that Walmartification of schools is the best way to deliver education and that public services like school are for the poor and for no one else.
The original SPS plan to cut more 20 schools was met with outrage. After realizing they were outflanked, the district pivoted to closing only a few schools, but with hints that there was more to come. Parents rightly understood this was a divide-and-conquer-strategy, and stuck together in solidarity for our kids, families and their communities.
Fortunately, parents pushed back, hard, at every step in the process. They held rallies, lobbied, wrote op-eds, showed up to board meetings and made their voices heard. All together for Seattle Schools organized a large, coordinated effort. The groundswell won the day.
While I cannot diagnose who caused what to happen, I do want to say that I saw really significant leadership from three places that I want to highlight here.
Community member Robert Cruickshank. Robert took it on as his personal mission to reject this ruinous plan. He did not accept the neoliberal assumption that schools should be cut down to size, and delivered as a generic, crappy cookie-cutter-experience-for-the-poor while everyone else just buys into the private market. He consistently reminded folks that the “savings” from school closures rarely pan out and that we were being sold a bill of goods. He penned a piece in these pages, frequented podcasts, spoke at rallies—did whatever he could to elevate the issue. It felt a little like he was everywhere!
School board member Sarah Clark. Sarah hails from the chamber, making her stance against cuts extra courageous. Her essay in the Seattle times was excellent, and suggested she was much more in touch with the people on this issue. I know I am hard on the Chamber for their frequent attempts to keep their taxes low while starving public services (and I will continue to be as long as they do that!). But Sarah took a very different approach than the generic chamber approach and I’m genuinely pleased with her leadership on this topic. We need leaders from both sides of the aisle who can see beyond the moment and lead and she stood out on this as a great example.
Seattle Hall Pass Podcast Hosts. Christie, Jane and Jasmine probed the issues, the players, dug into the details, and taught me a lot I didn’t know. While were less focused on advocacy for a particular outcome, they did help people like me learn about the plan details, down to footnotes at times, and the behavior of the SPS leadership and board. They gave people the chance to make their case and, most importantly, they kept the issue at the forefront of the discussion. Their podcast is currently on recess, but whatever it’s next generation becomes, it will be surely worth your while.
Fun fact, my son is in this picture from the Seattle Times
A huge shout out to them, the many other leaders who pressed this forward, and especially the community for its tireless engagement. When we fight, we win!