Do the math: Teachers + health costs + insanity = we all lose
Even if you don’t live in the City of Sacramento, or if you don’t have kids in the city public school system on the verge of blowing up, what is happening here affects you too.
Why? Because the demolition of a public school system serving more than 40,000 kids in the capital of California is representative of all that is wrong in the wealthiest state in America – and what is wrong in Sacramento.
We’re talking about places filled with people who talk a great game being “progressive.” Yet two-thirds of Sac City teachers are white; a majority of the leadership of the Sacramento City Teachers Association, their union, is white, too.
Meanwhile, if the school system goes into insolvency, the primary victims will be black and brown kids who make up a majority of the district student population.
Isn’t that the way it always is in Sacramento? You have affluent Curtis Park right across the way of North Oak Park. You have the gracious Pocket neighborhood right across Interstate 5 from Meadowview. Land Park is a world away from Del Paso Heights. Kids in the upscale neighborhoods are privileged because their parents can raise funds for their schools if the district blows up. (And lest you think I’m just lecturing, I include myself in this group.)
Or, seeing affluent Sacramento families move their kids to expensive charter or private schools wouldn’t be surprising.
But everybody else will be stuck in schools whose programs will be gutted. And we’re already talking about a district that disproportionately suspends African American students. We’re talking about a district whose elite college prep programs are already lacking in diversity, such as the Humanities and International Studies Program (HISP) at C.K. McClatchy High School.
Why are these programs lacking in diversity? Because a very small number of black and brown students qualify for HISP by the time they reach high school.
Before elaborating on these points, let’s talk about how all of this defies simple logic.
How can the City of Sacramento be booming and California be soaring at same time the Sacramento City Unified District is upside down? It’s facing a $35-million budget deficit. Unless a deal is reached at the end by the end of June, the district could run out of money in the next school year.
It would then have to be bailed out by the state, which would strip local budget control from a locally elected school board members and its hand picked superintendent.
That would hurt Sacramento’s image, damage efforts to recruit businesses to relocate here, result in the unemployment of many unionized workers and – last, but not least – hurt thousands of kids.
Remember the kids? AND NOW THE TEACHER BASHING CONTINUE READING: Sac Union contract crisis shows what’s wrong with Sacramento and CA | The Sacramento Bee
