arents’ worries about whether this was just another effort to gentrify their neighborhood and black parents’ concern that this would send their child to a school where they would face racial animus from teachers. Through that process, we gained the collective courage to do something bolder than we first thought possible.
Instead of a false choice of mandate vs. engagement, protest vs. backlash, elusive sweeping change vs. small pilot program, we have the opportunity to build a feedback loop that moves from insistent organizing through participatory planning to implementation with integrity — and then insist on taking the next step, even bolder than the one before. (And indeed this week, building in part on the District 15 work, the School Diversity Advisory Group appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio put forth a bold agenda to eliminate gifted and talented programs that result in segregation.)
If we do this in the middle schools of 10 more community school districts, we will have 100,000 more New York City public school students in integrated schools: 10% less segregated.
That will be no excuse to stop marching to desegregate the other 90%. Quite the opposite: It will be a powerful cohort to keep marching with.