Thread by @mollyali

A THREAD w/ something for everybody: desegregation, schools, childcare, & transportation!

Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) didn't desegregate til the 1980's. Most of the process would be familiar if you’ve seen desegregation anywhere: Busing, awkwardly drawn boundaries, etc. 1/

The story of my kids' school(s) is unique in Ann Arbor, though it has happened elsewhere. For this section of the city, there used to be 4 elementary schools, 2 majority white, north of Eisenhower, and 2 majority Black, south of Eisenhower. 2/

Like most places, school segregation is inseparable from housing segregation. The majority Black schools were in majority Black neighborhoods (now more mixed, but still majority BIPOC and/or immigrant), and the majority white schools were in majority white neighborhoods. 3/

As part of the desegregation plan, AAPS closed down 2 of the schools, one white and one Black. Then they divided the remaining schools into a lower elementary and an upper elementary, and combined all the kids from the geographic area that had once fed all 4 schools. 4/

Bryant now serves preschool - 2nd grade & Pattengill is 3rd - 5th, and combined they are Bryant Pattengill (B&P), what the district calls a Paired School, two buildings serving the same geographic area, from 2.5 miles and a major highway apart (this is important later). 5/

Today, Bryant & Pattengill are majority minority schools (~62% BIPOC), with high proportions of English language learners. They are also 2 of Ann Arbor's 11 Title 1 elementary schools, meaning they have high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families. 6/

A higher than avg # of white kids in the B&P zone go to private schools, magnet schools, or do school of choice into other public schools. It's a classic example of #NiceWhiteParents disinvesting in local schools in a way that feels personal to them but has systemic impacts. 7/

(I write this fully aware that I am a white parent with white kids with all the attendant privileges, regardless of where I send them to school.) 8/

Okay, so now let's talk about Before and After School Child Care (#BASCC). AAPS originally planned to cut it completely this year. No more BASCC. After an outcry, they brought back limited spots at five Title 1 schools. 9/

B&P aren't among the 5. I've heard it's because Bryant Community Center is expected to cover the need. But there's a problem with this plan: the Community Center is near Bryant. Pattengill is 2.5 miles away. The schools aren't providing BASCC buses. 10/

There's another wrinkle: Because B&P are both elementary schools, they have the same start and end time. Usually, if a family has kids in more than one public school, it's because they're spread across elementary, middle, or high school, which all have different bell times. 11/

If you have more than one kid who goes to B&P, unless they are twins you will have at least one year but probably more in which your kids are at two different schools, 2.5 miles apart, and they start and end at the same time. 12/

Now the schools are no longer offering BASCC, where you could drop one child off early and trust that they’d be safe and supervised while you hustle off to get the other child to school on time, or do the reverse at the end of the day. 13/

"But what about the school bus?" Great question! The bus routes aren't designed around the reality that if a family lives near one school they are far from the other, and they often have kids in both schools at once. 14/

We’re in the bus zone for Bryant but not Pattengill. In the morning, our bus route starts at Pattengill before getting to us, so we can't just put both kids on the same bus at the same time to get to their two schools. 15/

We could get both kids to Pattengill extra early, and put the Bryant-going child on the bus there, but then the Pattengill-going child would be left unattended for half an hour before school starts, because there's no before care. 16/

"What about bikes?" Yes! We love bikes! But to travel 2.5 miles in the 7 minutes between drop off and 2nd bell would require going 21 mph the whole way without stopping (I did the math). Physically impossible for a 6 year old on 20" wheels, or even for me on the cargo bike. 17/

The Pattengill-going child could walk there, but not alone because there is a busy road that is not safe to cross without a grown-up. The city is having trouble hiring enough crossing guards. Walking also takes a long time, and time is of the essence. 18/

Did I mention that AAPS "expanded the walk zones" this year, a.k.a. decided that if you live as far as 1.5 miles from school you don't get a school bus? Because sustainability?

https://twitter.com/mollyali/status/1423803660383961088?s=20

19/

Even driving, which is likely what we will end up doing in the a.m., will require lots of hustle and hoping for green lights, not to mention the emissions & congestion we’ll be contributing to. We’re lucky it’s even an option. 20/

I have been perseverating on this for weeks, trying to figure out how my individual family is going to get our kids to 2 different schools at the same time every day, but I'm me, so I also keep thinking about the deeper, systemic roots of this seemingly individual problem. 21/

Extra challenges and inconveniences have been imposed on the (majority BIPOC) families w/ kids at B&P, in the name of desegregation. They seem to be invisible to AAPS, which created them, even though in theory they were created to make things fairer and more equal. 22/

B&P families deal with a higher baseline of logistical wrangling because so many of us have kids in schools 2.5 miles apart that start & end at the same time. Now add pandemic protocols. Subtract before and aftercare. Cut buses. It's hard everywhere, but it's harder here. 23/

Meanwhile, 35 years later, AAPS schools are still segregated and unequal! We have majority white schools with multi-million dollar playgrounds and majority minority schools that will no longer have access to basic before and after care. 24/

Everything about this year feels terrible. Our transportation struggle is one tiny drop in a terrible bucket. But I love Bryant Pattengill, I love our school community, I want our families & our kids to have everything they need to thrive, and I hate that we don’t. /fin