A mayor caring about schools is always good for a community.

Educational improvement demands holistic approach

A mayor caring about schools is always good for a community.

By Kathy Clay-Little / Express-News Columnist

01/29/2011

Page 1 of 1

The hugely successful San Antonio 2020 workshops concluded with Mayor Julián Castro announcing his intent to use his bully pulpit as mayor to elevate San Antonio's educational outcomes. The mayor said he would (some see it as threatening) get involved in school board elections and in the selection of superintendents.

Although the mayor and City Council have no jurisdiction over San Antonio's school systems, the idea of using their positions as bully pulpits to influence the city's educational system is gaining currency. A week before the mayor's declaration, East Side resident Chris Dawkins expressed his feelings that the District 2 City Council representative must get involved in education. Dawkins, who squelched the rumor that he is planning to run against Ivy Taylor for the District 2 seat, believes that when it comes to accountability and representing District 2, education has to be on the grading card.

He points out that the East Side of District 2 will see limited benefit from the military medical center growth at Fort Sam Houston because of the perception of poor-performing schools. Developers won't invest in building the kind of houses attractive to military personnel if the schools are below par, Dawkins reasons.

School boards set policy and superintendents implement policy, however, influencing elections, and school administrations are not the most critical keys to producing quality education.

The educational disparities in this city are organic, going back to the time of separate and unequal resources, and the conscious separation of rich and poor, of black, brown and white.

In his book, “Deep in the Heart of San Antonio,” former Trinity University Urban Studies professor Char Miller paints McCullough Avenue as the dividing line. Miller notes that students in Kenwood, west of McCullough, are in San Antonio Independent School District. Its high school, Edison High School, is over 90 percent Hispanic and only 75 per cent of the students graduate. Right across the street, students east of McCullough attend Alamo Heights High School where the student population is over 70 percent white; 96 percent of its graduates go to college.

The ugly past informs San Antonio's present and future, and city and civic leaders influencing school board elections and the selection of superintendents won't overcome what that legacy has wrought.

It is not unheard of for a mayor to become involved in education; the mayor or any civic or business leader serious about improving San Antonio's educational outcomes should start by considering Savannah, Ga., mayor Otis Johnson who made education a centerpiece of his administration. A good beginning would be to Google “Education Rituals in the Savannah Community” and read his 12-step plan. Johnson also gave Harlem Children's Zone founder Geoffrey Canada the concept of the Harlem Children's Zone.

Children in the Harlem Children's Zone are still being born out of wedlock and raised in poor, single-family homes in blighted neighborhoods; yet they are succeeding in school at unprecedented rates.

Impacting San Antonio's poorer educational systems demands a holistic approach in which churches, organizations, businesses, neighborhoods and individuals become engaged. When this happens, the right people will be elected and hired to lead the floundering districts, and change will come.

Kathy Clay-Little is publisher of African American Reflections.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Educational-improvement-demands-holistic-approach-981817.php#ixzz1CWx0LlR8