Schools: A Hard Look at Myself

July 13, 2015

Choosing schools, or rather, recognizing the lack of choice I have for my daughters' schools has revealed one of my biggest personal conflicts around race. My girls attend Minneapolis Public Schools. In 2006, Solana started at Pratt Community School as a kindergartener. The district had been trying to close the school for a couple of years, and the neighborhood fought hard to keep it open. In part because of this dynamic, a number of kids in the neighborhood went to other schools- charters, private, and open-enrolled public. Meanwhile, Pratt had some good teachers, but there were a number of very poor ones. Today, 29% of Pratt's student body is white and 69% receive free and reduced lunch. Nine years ago, the numbers were similar.

I believed, as Solana trudged through her experience at Pratt, that she was getting a sub-par academic experience in part because of the race and socio-economic make-up of the school. How did I imagine race and socio-economics played into the success of the school? And when I say imagined, I readily admit, I didn't form these opinions from any factual knowledge. What I imagined was that there were: Less involved parents, lower expectations of what could be expected from teachers, and lower expectations of what could be expected from students.

But when Solana hit fourth grade, she had one of the most amazing teachers I have ever met, Ms. Jan Nethercut. Everyone loved her. Everyone learned from her. Ms. Nethercut's arrival at Pratt marked a change in the tide at Pratt, led of course by the district finally committing to keeping Pratt open. Today, numbers are up. Teachers are worlds better. More young families are moving into our neighborhood and more of their kids are enrolling at Pratt. And all of this is happening while maintaining the diversity that I once thought was to blame for Solana's experience.

Despite this knowledge, as Solana entered the world of high school choices, I felt plagued by the same questions. Namely, would our area high school, South High, my alma mater, be challenging enough for her? Would it be safe for her? I know I am not the only parent with these questions.