Our schools are failing our African-American and Hispanic children. Dropout rates are higher and test scores are lower than for white and Asian students. Alameda Unified School District pays lip service to the problem in its Master Plan, acknowledging the "achievement gap," but commits no funds to the problem with this new parcel tax.
Our elementary schools with the best test scores are in Alameda's wealthier, predominantly white and Asian neighborhoods, the same neighborhoods represented on the Parcel Tax Advisory Group, and presumably the same neighborhoods from which the school board would handpick representatives for the new parcel tax advisory group. (There's no guarantee in Measure E that all neighborhoods would be represented on the advisory panel.)
Parents in these wealthier neighborhoods resist elementary school consolidation — is it because consolidation would upset the de facto segregation of our schools, which preserves "their" schools for white and Asian kids and relegates "everyone else" to schools in lower-income neighborhoods? (The Edison student population is almost entirely white.)
Closing schools doesn't mean that children won't get an education, it just means that they'll attend a different school. Aren't we supposed to be educating our children about the world around us, including all culture and races? Don't we want cultural diversity in all of our schools, instead of diverse schools in
low-income neighborhoods and monoculture schools in high-income areas?
Some of the most influential and active people behind the scenes on these kick-the-can parcel taxes every few years