“Edwin Pacheco, whose organization Red Hook Redemption provides volunteers who work in P.S. 676, said he signed the letter because the rezoning’s focus has felt like it is about filling the newly built seats at P.S. 32. He wishes the same attention would be paid to filling classrooms in Red Hook.
“The rezoning, he said, feels like a tacit acknowledgement that it will be up to communities of color to integrate majority-white schools, rather than expecting white families to enroll in schools like P.S. 676. “For me, that’s not true equity,” he said.”
How could it not feel this way when the DOE has inexplicably excluded several majority-white school zones near PS 32 from its analysis? Schools like PS 39, PS 107, PS 118, and PS 321 are all more overcrowded than the schools deemed to be “affected” by this rezoning. Why not include these schools in a plan that would spread enrollment across all these schools and promote integration and rational use of school facilities? What are we missing here?
Read the full article here, and contact us here at New York Appleseed to continue the conversation about how to promote integration in our schools.
