Careful which schools you close
In her column in Tuesday’s Seattle Times, editorial writer Lynne Varner offers these statistics, encapsulating the impact on enrollment of the Seattle school closures two years ago: “Of 743 students from the closed schools . . . A grand total of 154 students from the closed schools left the district.” Varner, arguing that the next round of school closures must go ahead as part of the district’s budget-cutting plan, offers these figures with relief, like someone who’s just swallowed a teaspoon full of foul-tasting medicine: That wasn’t so bad, now, was it?
Depends on how you look at it. Consider if there would be a similar enrollment drop with this round of school closures. Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson assumes closing seven buildings next year will save $3.6 million. But 154 students are worth more than $1.5 million in state and local revenue to the district.
It’s also worth looking at who the departing students might be. Back in the 1970s when Seattle Public Schools closed a bunch of buildings, the district did a study to see if families with children moved out of neighborhoods where schools were closed. The study found that people pretty much stayed put, didn’t sell their houses and run. But there was one glaring exception, a neighborhood where nearly all the children were gone within two years. That neighborhood was First Hill, the only area where a school was closed that served a community of renters. They packed up and left as soon as they could.
Which should be a cautionary note. If we make the not-unreasonable assumption that renters are more likely to be among Seattle’s low-income families, then closing schools that serve them (Van Asselt is on the current list, for example) may have the unintended consequence of driving more low-income families out of the city.
And one could dwell with some regret, or pleasure, depending on your point of view, on the fate of the building Seattle Public Schools closed on First Hill. The former Summit elementary was sold, and the building is now home to the successful, upscale private Northwest School.
Comments:
Posted Thu, Dec 4, 12:07 p.m. inappropriate
Speaking of Northwest, I see that its upper-school tuition this year is $25,095.
And speaking of other area private schools (and taking over closed public schools), I do know that Bush has had its eye on the adjacent Martin Luther King campus for years, though I think the community has been opposed to this for just as long.
Posted Fri, Dec 5, 7:50 a.m. inappropriate
Hello Dick, glad to see you are still following the School closure issue. But inevitably, this is just a snapshot of a moving target. As long as the City of Seattle continues to acknowledge the negative impacts that rapid/high density development has on school age populations, that population will continue to diminish with even more school closure than those now proposed. And, as the families move out, and childless individuals move in, that growth is not friendly to public education issues. We all know that having children in the system, makes families interested in their children's edcation. Fewer families equals less interest.
High density growth raises land values which ripple through the City, driving up the cost of housing. For families, who need larger accomodations, that prices them out of the City to smaller Cities where housing is more affordable and schools are newer and expanding. They are also closewr to the places where our teachers have to live. I don't see this trend ending in the near future. This condition particularly has a major impact on minority families who generally have larger families. As they move out (renters and homeowners) they take with them a larger piece of the school age population.
Until this City's leaders realize what they continue to do to the Public school system, and get back to concurrancy in development, you can kiss the public educational system good-bye. With our vital children at risk of experiencing an ever decreasing quality educational program, I'd get out now, while one can still afford to do it.
Sorry to say!
Art
Posted Fri, Dec 5, 10:02 a.m. inappropriate
After reading several of Mr Lilly's articles over the past few days, the hardest part is to figure out what the alternatives are or what he suggests instead. I would suggest an article on what cuts should be made or how the district can best move forward.
The writer above is on target about how the high density housing is not really aimed at families. Apart from the high cost and small size, they generally don't have kid-friendly play areas in them. Or at least these are not advertised. I am thinking of the developments in Belltown and South Lake Union for example.