By: Nico DeStefano
4/3/2020
Imagine your in elementary again going about your life. One day your mom tells you that your school is shutting down and you are going to a new school, but there is no reason provided.
This is what happened to some elementary kids very recently, Four schools in the Austin area were shut down due to “poor facilities scores and declining enrollment.” These four schools are Metz, Sims, Brooke, and Pease and are all in low-income areas. The problem is that they valued the money over the child.“ it is just moving campuses, the teachers are not changing, the kids learning does not change, only they save money from campuses.” (anonymous interviewee)
Each school has somewhat low stats, but there are many schools with lower, and some they own, so there is no reason to shut them down and not the other ones. The reason would be to save money, or even because 3/4 of them have over 95% of children in the minority: Hispanic, Black, Asian, etc.
These schools are also getting transferred to new campuses, however, the actual teachers are also. “students from Sims will now go to Norman, students from Metz will now go to Sanchez Elementary, students from Pease will go to Zavala Elementary and operate as a separate school within the building, and students from Brooke will go to either Govalle or Linder elementary schools…” (KXAN). Each school is getting moved to a new campus, but so are the teachers, and so it is just saving AISD money, but the kids are getting the same learning. “Operate as a separate school” is a prime example, where the school is getting moved, but not changed. This is because there are just moving campuses, but not changing teachers.
The kids longer commutes, however not affecting them as much, can be a bigger hassle. Along with this, the kids who walked before, now have to take the bus, causing more overfilled busses, longer commutes, and more unpleasant experiences for the kids in general. These problems are not helped by the fact that this is in Austin, where traffic can already get heavy. In total, the long commutes are a bigger hassle to the kids and do not help the Austin traffic with more busses.
O the other hand for the schools getting moved, we have a racial standpoint. These schools were mostly in the minority. According to Public School Review, a website that gives stats of shools, Sims is 85% Hispanic, 13% Black, and 2% white, making it 98% minority. Also according to Public School Review, Metz is 8% Asian, 84% Hispanic, 7% Black, and 1% white. This means Metz is 99% in the minority. As aforementioned, according to Public School Review, Brooke is 86% Hispanic, 10% Black, and 4% white. This means Brooke is 96% minority, making it still way above average. Pease Elementary is the last of the bunch, and according to Public School Review, they are 36% Hispanic, 9% Black, 4% Two or more races, and 51% White. This means Pease Elementary is the only school to have under 95% minority, with only 49% being in it.
According to DemoGraphic Data, all these schools are in low-income areas, roughly 25%-50+% of people who live in the four areas of poverty, and this means that shutting down the school could also be moving a shelter point for a lot of kids if they are homeless. This also means were extending commutes for a necessary thing, so kids have to wake up earlier, and this can bring other things like sleep deprivation into play. If these schools stayed open, kids in poverty would have a much easier, and most likely enjoyable time, at school.
With a longer commute, less sleep, and no change in teachers, kids will not learn more, but instead will actually do worse as nothing has changed in learning, and the thing that changes is their commute, while their learning stays. This means that in total, they actually will get worse learning, bringing their part of the grade scores lower, and enrollment will not change either, with fewer locations there is less space, so not as many people can fit. Transferring schools actually worsens the kids learning, and Austin Independent School District is just closing them to save money. “Even if we close the schools, the kids do not change their learning, its just to save money on AISD’s part” (Anonymous Interviewee)
“If we do not respond, it will keep happening” (Anonymous Interviewee) we need to respond, however as nobody knows much about whats going on, or the real reasons behind it, we can not. This is why more studies need to be published on this topic, and more research should be done about schools getting shut down. And if we do not do this, more kids will have to go through this, and the real thing that needs to be done is better teachers. We do not want more kids to deal with this, so share this with someone, and bring awareness to these topics. Hey, if were never able to share, I am sure the minority of kids will get used to moving schools way too often.
Bibliography
“Austin ISD Board Votes to Close 4 Elementary Schools.” 2019. KXAN.com. November 19, 2019. https://www.kxan.com/top-stories/austin-isd-board-votes-to-close.
“Brooke Elementary School Profile (2020) | Austin, TX.” n.d. Public School Review. Accessed March 4, 2020. http://www.publicschoolreview.com/brooke-elementary-school-profile/78702.
“Metz Elementary School Profile (2020) | Austin, TX.” n.d. Public School Review. Accessed March 4, 2020. https://www.publicschoolreview.com/metz-elementary-school-profile.
“Pease Elementary School Profile (2020) | Austin, TX.” n.d. Public School Review. Accessed March 4, 2020. https://www.publicschoolreview.com/pease-elementary-school-profile.
“T A Sims Elementary School Profile (2020) | Fort Worth, TX.” n.d. Public School Review. Accessed March 4, 2020. https://www.publicschoolreview.com/t-a-sims-elementary-school-profile.
“Demographic Data | AustinTexas.gov.” n.d. Accessed March 4, 2020. http://www.austintexas.gov/page/demographic-data.
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