The Equity in Education Coalition demands Seattle Public Schools prioritize an excellent education for our kids by equitably allocating funds to schools that serve our children instead of closing their schools.
With the news of as many as 21 elementary schools on the chopping block for the 2025-26 school year, the Equity in Education Coalition (EEC) is horrified by the decision to strip away more resources from historically marginalized youth. The budget deficits that have led to this decision are not a mere coincidence. They are the result of systemic inequities, policies that have long neglected our communities and a history that has devalued and jeopardized the very lives of our children. Closing these schools is another racist, classist, short-sighted decision that neglects our communities and exacerbates the economic disparities that already plague our city.
According to the Seattle Public Schools Well-Resourced Schools website, “many students and families will be impacted by school closures and/or boundary changes, including students of color. However, a racially equitable outcome will not disproportionately impact students of color furthest from educational justice.” We contend that the district is setting its bar far too low. Instead of resigning itself to the fact that communities of color will be negatively affected by school closures, the district must craft a proposal that rights the wrongs that have been inflicted upon those communities for decades. It must put forward solutions that explicitly center the voices, rights, and needs of its residents of color, that redress the harms that have been perpetuated upon them, and that allocate the resources they have historically been denied.
The data is clear, when children of color are moved to predominantly white schools, they often experience trauma and struggle with their own identity due to lack of support during the transition.
Instead of moving our children like they are expendable, Seattle Public Schools should be investing more money into under-resourced schools and making decisions of budgeting based on what students need, not what zip code they live in.
Closing one school to increase the number of students at a well-resourced school will cost SPS money that could instead be invested in elevating programming at under-resourced schools, allowing our children to remain in their neighborhoods with their communities and families.
The closure of a school disrupts not just the educational path but also a student’s social and emotional development. “The long-term effects of school closures on students’ academic performance and socio-emotional development are significant concerns. Disruptions caused by closures can have lasting impacts on students’ educational trajectories,” said EEC Executive Director Sharonne Navas.
The decision to close schools disproportionately affects communities that are already underserved, increasing travel distances, straining resources, and potentially widening the educational equity gap.
We are also deeply concerned about how the district’s proposals will affect educators of Color. According to the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, only 14.5%* of SPS teachers are people of color or multiracial, whereas over 50% of its students identify as people of color or multiracial. We have long understood that all students benefit from being taught by educators of color and that those farthest from educational justice experience significantly improved outcomes when their teachers are more closely representative of their own communities. Seattle Public Schools has professed its commitment to recruiting and retaining teachers of color, yet it is unclear how their Well-Resourced Schools proposals will impact those very teachers, many of whom are newer to the district and to the profession. We demand that the district explicitly prioritize both retaining its teachers of color and ensuring that they remain in the schools and communities with which they have built relationships.
Seattle Public Schools (SPS) must reconsider these closures and engage in an open, transparent, and inclusive dialogue with all stakeholders, especially those communities most impacted by these decisions and those who have been historically marginalized and harmed by district policies. Any path forward should prioritize these communities’ needs and potential impacts to prevent exacerbating existing inequities. SPS must ensure that affected communities have a voice in these decisions.
We call on our community to voice their concerns, participate in upcoming school board meetings, and join us in advocating for solutions that uphold the promise of equitable education for every student in Seattle. Speak out at the next Seattle school board meeting on October 9.
Let’s be clear, this is the new version of the bussing program in the 1970’s through the early 2000’s. It was traumatizing then while disguised as “good for our children” and it is traumatizing now while disguised as “good for our children.”
What would be good for our children is a well-resourced local public-school option that supports the local community while uplifting the assets of its own neighborhood.
*Data available from 2022-23