Open Letter to the School Reform Commission

Our children, the majority of whom are black and brown and live in poverty, deserve the same quality schools that children in white affluent communities take for granted.   Instead, we have seen budget cuts, school closures and turning over neighborhood schools to charters.   This is a failed agenda. The now five year old Renaissance Charter program has not delivered the promised educational gains, contributes to the District’s financial woes, and denies stakeholders a role in deciding how our schools can be improved.  There is a better way.   Well funded, high quality community schools.  Community schools have a proven track record of success in a growing number of cities around the country, like Cincinnati where graduation rates have increased dramatically and racial achievement gap has disappeared.   Jim Kenney and Darrell Clarke support community schools, but they are nowhere to be found in Superintendent Hite's Action Plan.