Why isn’t Seattle Public Schools fighting for our kids?

In the coming weeks, Seattle Public Schools will unveil its proposal to address its budget deficit, and despite the district’s insistence school closures are not a foregone conclusion, that proposal will all but certainly include the recommendation to close neighborhood schools across the city. 

This announcement’s arrival on the heels of how disastrously SPS managed the substantial “reshuffling” of students and staff at over 40 elementary and K-8 schools is not lost on staff, parents, and communities; it has only fueled concerns and frustration at how little they center students, and is contributing to a growing discontent with both the district and the Seattle School Board. 

Despite claims of transparency around the budget development process to address the deficit, we don’t have any insight into how the district is arriving at their conclusions. We haven’t seen their math, we don’t know what, if any, creative/alternative solutions have been proposed to school closures, nor do we know how all this is being done in service for our children. Has SPS considered asking families why they’re leaving the district to better understand how it can attract and retain families? Has SPS analyzed its enrollment projections in light of the updates to Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan and middle housing bill? Is SPS actually listening to students and families?

Interestingly, the district has shared that closing schools won’t solve the budget deficit alone, leaving us then to ponder why SPS and the board see school closures as the best course of action — if this won’t benefit students with reduced class sizes and/or improved student outcomes, or free up funding for enrichment programing like art or music, or improve support for special education, or provide necessary resources for staff, how does SPS and the board expect families and staff to accept this proposal as the best they can do? 

As a parent of two kids in SPS, it feels like the district and the board have abandoned their responsibilities to fight for the students entrusted to their care. Instead of “punching up” and advocating/working with legislators for better funding at the state level for all public K-12 institutions in WA, they’ve resigned themselves to “punching down,” leaving the students, staff, and families to deal with the repercussions, whatever they may be (and consequences be damned). 

History can illuminate what some of those repercussions will be. The district closed 10 schools 15 years ago citing the same reasons — budget and enrollment — only to reopen most of those schools within a few years (and with a multimillion dollar price tag attached) when enrollment rebounded. Repeating that process now won’t look any different. It’ll further disenfranchise schools and communities SPS doesn’t see as “well-resourced,” disrupt learning for thousands of students and hasten the flight of families and staff from SPS. 

Instead of closing schools, SPS should focus its time and attention on solving the real causes of the crisis in public education: deep budget cuts, the shameful achievement gap and declining enrollment. 

And we the public have an important role in holding SPS, the School Board and our legislators accountable. We need to ensure those we elect to the board are committed to building a great school district in partnership with community input, one that is committed to addressing mismanagement and championing true transparency. We need to work with others across the state to ensure our Legislature fully funds public education, looking to opportunities like the nearly $1 billion in capital gains tax revenue as an example of how to help distribute a small portion of the immense concentration of wealth toward an investment in our future. 

The Nov. 7 election gives us a chance to challenge the status quo. We need to make sure those in positions of power are fighting for our kids like they promised.