It’s Not Used, It’s Pre-Owned…
Written by redqueeninla in LAUSD
For almost a year I’ve been struggling to articulate what it is about public schools that people — people-with-options, members of a once- though perhaps only now aspiring-middle class — what is it that compatriots of my own depreciated class reject as inconceivable for entrusting with their own children?
It’s a tricky question because not only is the answer difficult to articulate, but the existence of the question is slightly offensive: there are plenty of folks who don’t, won’t and can’t shy away from public education. Somehow focusing on that which characterizes people freighted with the opposite good fortune of “choice”, feels like, well, fiddling while Rome is burning – or worse, as if cake were being studied when the cupboards are barren of even crackers.
But the question matters, distaste aside. First, we are all constituents of the city, and beneficiaries of public education, not to mention the democracy that supports it and is composed of and for it.
Second, it is another of these elephant-in-the-room matters, because nearly 75% of the students in LAUSD live in poverty, translating to a vanishing minority of middle class students who remain in attendance at district public schools. Yet these students in addition to having all the rights of poor students to a good public education, are part of a demographic that is especially missed. As a generalization, these are the relatively well-prepared children, with families well-poised to be members of the school community who are especially active. This is not a judgment or a verdict, but an acknowledgement that socioeconomic standing has collateral effect in terms of disposable time, income and capacity for sharing within the education community.
So try as I might – delving deep within myself and studying friends, acquaintances and the abhorrent besides – still I fall shy of anything more