At the 7/11/17 regular meeting of the PPS Board, four leaders of the Black community asked PPS for a “Right to Return” program for students who have been pushed out of housing in the Tubman Middle School cluster by gentrification (or other reasons) to be able to return to Tubman and the feeder schools in the cluster with transportation (bussing?) provided (see minute 33 of the video). The PPS Board directed the two PPS co-vice-chairs to develop a proposal with the four Black leaders.
I support giving the parents of Black students with historical links to the Tubman the choice between sending their student to their neighborhood school or to a Tubman cluster school. I think this can be done legally through the current PPS petition system. There would need to be room for more students at the Tubman cluster school. Out-of-district students transfering in would need to meet those separate rules. So, I support a basic “Right to Return” program.
Such a program will increase racial segregation in PPS and reinforce the historical geography of “redlining” in Portland. It will probably further concentrate low-income students.
I would further support the transfer of any Black student to any Tubman cluster school if that is what their parents want. If the student and their parents want to attend schools with more Black students than their neighborhood school, that is OK with me. I am unsure if PPS could legally allow this (issues of racial discrimination).
I would prefer to integrate PPS schools. So why not give Black parents and students even more choices. Permit them to transfer into some of the more affluent, White schools (Alameda, Lincoln, as examples). I have previously advocated for more choices for low-income students (not being able to do so legally by race). Let them chose between schools with more Black students and the more affluent and White schools.
From my 2015 comments to the DBRAC (here).
To further equalize the distribution of students eligible for reduced priced meals, neighborhood schools with forecasted enrollment of less than 25% students eligible for reduced priced meals should have their geographic boundaries reduced to permit students eligible for reduced priced meals to transfer in up to the 25%.
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