The Kunsmiller Middle School auditorium was far from full Wednesday evening, but the tension was palpable. West Denver Prep charter school was holding a lottery to admit its second class of 130 sixth-graders to its Harvey Park campus. See a brief video of the event. About 50 anxious parents sat scattered through the auditorium. No one engaged in small talk. Parents sat stony-faced, worry etched on their faces. The prospective WDP sixth-graders chewed their nails, hid their faces in their hands, and showed other signs of agitation. Even younger siblings curbed their rambunctiousness.
The school had names on 170 slips of paper in a fishbowl, and 130 slots to fill. Good odds, if you view it dispassionately. But when, as a parent, you feel your child’s future is on the line, that 40-seat gap feels like the Grand Canyon.
Families did not have to be present to win. As luck would have it, a disproportionate number of people in the audience had the misfortune to end up on the waiting list. Those who got lucky let out subdued whoops, high-fived each other. Parents kissed their children out of sheer joy.
I had a hard time as I sat there watching this unfold fathoming the recent hostility toward charters in general and West Denver Prep in particular among some Denverites, including a few school board members. The parents in the Kunsmiller auditorium last night, overwhelmingly Latino, were not the city’s elite. They weren’t praying for their children’s names to be called out of some political or ideological preference for charters.
No, they recognized the stakes for what they were: A real shot at a successful middle school experience, leading to success in high school, and in all probability, college. Realistically, the alternative for these families is that their children will get lost in a large, under-performing middle school and never make it through high school.
So yes, WDP may consist almost entirely of low-income kids of color. Long may it wave. I am an ardent believer in integration. I read with great interest the two recent studies (here and here) highlighting the segregated nature of some charters. But then I observe the cynical, political ways in which some people already are planning to warp these studies’ findings to suit their own ends. Further, I can’t help but wonder how such well-intentioned, potentially important pieces of research can seem so irrelevant to the realities on the ground in this and other cities.
Popularity: 28% [?]
“…as a parent, you feel your child’s future is on the line…”
I’m totally depressed at imagining the scene you’ve described.
To me the whole idea and public benefit of “public schools” is that there will never be a “lottery” whereby some children’s parents cry because their kids got left out, while others celebrate. It’s like something out of Dr Seuss — before the Good Guys come in to straighten it out.
Everyone deserves quality schools. If I had one wish for avowed charter advocates, it would be: please observe the focus on this distinction, as opposed to a perceived support for existing failed traditional schools. It’s one thing to not get to be a cheerleader, it’s quite another to “not get selected” for a basic education.
I admit I am one of the more cynical members here. But I have to admit, when I see this kind of anticipatory anxiety about getting into a PUBLIC school or not, I have to think something is going right here.
[...] News Colorado’s Alan Gottlieb has excellent coverage of last night’s lottery event in which 170 mostly poor and Hispanic 5th grade students were [...]