Changing schools should not repeat history

Minneapolis Public Schools need to improve for all students, of all backgrounds, no excuses – now.

What’s in the way? The vexing construct of history, structures, and people.

If we could wipe the game board clean, erase all the buildings and start from scratch, would our new school district have any resemblance to the one we have today - or the one we’re proposing?

Not hardly.

Given a true fresh start we would build schools based upon all that we know works. Our new product would be a Herculean leap away from today’s schools, or even the ones planned for five years from now.

But we don’t have the luxury of time to forsake the good for the perfect. The combination of cumbersome State and Federal prescriptions, along with archaic staffing agreements and other legacy obligations stunts our imagination and thwarts our best judgment.

So we shoot for what’s good, within a finite operational context, and strive to do the best we can with what we have. We are led to a common restructuring fundamental which is an administrative impulse to move large bodies of students. The justification for doing so is built upon the sand of good intensions, often without the concrete of sufficient preparations. For decades schools have been merged, moved, closed, and re-opened. Teaching teams and student populations of various stripes have been put together and torn apart, often without a clear vision or support for their complex human reactions.

Again, we are on the verge of big moves for many students. Again we stare history, structures, and people squarely in the face and tell them it will be better for them. It might well be, but parents and community members are intuitive in their requests for details.

If you are Native American, history should instruct you to beware of people who ask you to move. You may be told that your new destination will be Val Halla on Earth, but there is enough information on the historic record for you to question whether or not this will be so.

If you are Latino, you too should question any plan for moving you. You might want to reflect on how the West was won, and then ask yourself what you gain by moving.

If you are African American, it’s in your best interest to ask about the provisions in your place of relocation. When it comes to moving, history is definitely not on your side.

If you are a child and your parent comes to tell you that your family is moving, again, maybe the fourth time in a year, you may need to think about the impact moving is having on your growth and development.

More than anything, you’ll all be smart to ask “who is asking me to move, and why?” And, you might also ask yourself who is not moving, and why? Over many centuries, nothing has so debilitated the thriving of a people as the deflating tool of displacement, which is something I’m mindful of now.

In Minneapolis, the most moved students are people of color, including special education students and English Language Learners. These groups represent the most unguarded children in MPS, those with the most to lose in terms of academics and opportunity.

In an age of obsession about the so-called achievement gap, which is better understood as a deficiency within the educational institution to teach children, we might consider the instability caused by years of minority transiency as one more willful blind spot by institutional leaders executed superbly for the benefit of those who need it least, to the disservice of those with the greatest needs.

Honesty demands we look closely at the different actors in this communal school reform effort. We must look at the groups influencing greater movement of children, and at the children being moved, and at those with a covetous spirit commanding us to prevent their children from any disruption whatsoever.

Historically displaced populations deserve the respect of their story, and that respect is made material by leaders that refuse to recreate the legacy of neglect.

A stable and free primary education is widely noted as an international human right within any modern society, and we do best when we enfranchise every child. Not just the children to parents with voices or those with access to media and power.

While I’m moved by the public voice that has responded to our restructuring plans, I’m cautious and dedicated to seeing specific detail of whether or not the displacement of students is for financial, operational, and political concerns; or for the academic advancement of vulnerable children. I’m also distinctly concerned about the voiceless families and children that will face yet another mass movement, not of their choosing.

If we are a fair people, we should all be concerned together.