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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]After watching the meeting on YouTube, there is a familiar dynamic at work.

White, seemingly-UMC women zoned to Herndon stood up to advocate for more boundary changes based on equity. They were the women who stood up and clamored that the school board didn’t go big enough. Meanwhile, a POC mom from the area stood up to argue that they shouldn’t move Coates kids to Herndon Elementary, even though the school has capacity.

It’s just a really stark reminder that the people pushing for the larger boundary moves are often at odds with POC in those very communities.

As Marcia St. John Cunning mentioned the other night at the school board meeting, her area told her that they don’t want people at their school if they don’t want to be there.

There is a fundamental disconnect between the UMC whites in these areas, and the people who they claim to be trying to “help” with larger boundary changes.[/quote]

Speaking directly about Marcia St John Cunning and Lewis - many Lewis pyramid parents spoke during the meeting about feeling the inequity at Lewis. One parent mentioned that fewer students at the school means less opportunities and named specific examples about classes and clubs being cancelled as a direct result of low enrollment. Something that changing boundaries to add more students to the school could directly resolve. 
And I don’t see how being a POC matters for that statement, but yes we are a POC family and I fully agree with the Lewis parents 
[/quote]
Adding more students to Lewis is right out of the five-part New York Times podcast from last decade called Nice White Parents. The argument of adding more affluent students to Lewis to increase opportunities is almost exactly the situation discussed in the NYC school in that series.

I’m just saying this is our version of that. It is worth a listen for anyone who is advocating for the school board to go bigger with its aims. You’ll quickly learn why that won’t work.[/quote]

Who is saying to add more affluent students?
I think people are saying to add kids period. It’s not like Lewis is in a terrible neighborhood. Have you even driven around that school and the surrounding neighborhoods? I don’t see a stark difference driving in any direction away from Lewis. [/quote]
Adding more affluent students to under enrolled schools was discussed yesterday by several speakers, including certain UMC white women looking to go bigger. Even when not said out loud that theme underlies the argument that there isn’t enough niche programming at the schools.[/quote]

I think your projecting a little here. 
Weren’t the Lewis parents happy with the idea of adding Bren Mar elementary to Lewis? Great schools says that school is over 50% low income. [/quote]

Call it projection, but I encourage everyone to listen to the Podcast. One of the takeaways is that nice white patents, often with the veneer of trying to help POC, end up controlling these schools to the detriment of the people that they are supposedly trying to help. A big takeaway is they end up doing more harm than good.[/quote]

Wait, you mean people advocate for their own kids and use whatever arguments they think are at their disposal?

That’s not exactly news, and indeed what you are doing here by looking for a way to discredit recent comments by “nice white parents” at schools like Herndon and Lewis. [/quote]
It is clear you didn’t listen to the NYT podcast because the take away is that white privileged families meddle in poor schools under the guise of helping those kids but end up doing harm.[/quote]+1[/quote]

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