A group of African-American citizens, most often led by Rev. Ralph Daniels,
president of the Black Baptist Ministers’ Union, has appeared at the citizens’
communications microphone at every regular board meeting. The union originally
set its sights on AISD when the board decided last year to include “harassment
based on sexual orientation” as an offense under the student discipline code.
But in the months since then, the group has spoken on matters related to the
quality of services in East Austin schools, especially schools that serve
mostly African-American children.
A recent decision to stop funding the
so-called “Priority Schools” – 16
East Austin schools with very high populations of poor children – has stirred
the ire of this group even more. The money, which originates from the federal
government, is now supposedly designated for as many as 38 low-income Austin
schools, including the 16 former Priority Schools. AISD Superintendent Jim Fox
is the target of a recent barrage of attacks from those opposed to the cuts.
A May 20 press release from Eddie Reeves, vice president of the National
Business League, declared that AISD Superintendent Jim Fox told
members of the African American community that the nearly $1 million cut from
the Priority Schools program was entirely defensible. Reeves added in his
criticism that Fox does not have a dropout prevention plan.
Jeff Travillion, president of the Austin NAACP, and Rev. Frank Garrett of
KAZI-FM radio both appeared at Monday night’s regular board meeting to declare
their opposition to Priority Schools cuts – and to threaten to scuttle the
upcoming bond issue.
In sharp contrast, another group of parents, all white, have regularly
appeared over the months and weeks to protest that AISD isn’t serving their
“brilliant” children with Gifted & Talented (GT) education. If the district
doesn’t start doing something about challenging its brightest students, why,
those parents are just going
to have to send their kids to private
school.
Patrick Roeder, a parent who has identified himself several times as belonging
to a GT parents’ association, appeared on Monday to repeat this message. So it
was rather a shame that representatives from neither group remained to hear a
report on AISD’s dropout reduction efforts. The news is pretty good. Overall
dropout rates went down from 5.7% in 1992-93 to 4.6% in 1993-94. Dropout rates
for African American students went from 7.2% to 5.6%; for Hispanics, from 8% to
6.2%; for whites, from 3.2% to 2.9%.
This type of resistance happens in every year that the proposed budget cuts
are higher than the tax hike, as is the case this year. (The AISD budget for
1995-96 will be discussed in an article next week. Watch for it.)
n
In board action: Trustees approved closed campuses at lunch for all
high schools. Seniors will have off-campus privileges, which can be revoked for
misbehavior. Color-coded IDs will be issued to all high school students, which
will require an initial outlay of about $18,000. (Yikes! Maybe the New World
Order really is on the way!) The board also approved a one-year agreement with
Capital Metro to provide transportation in 1995-96 to magnet school students,
at an estimated savings of $379,000. A public hearing on the district’s budget
has been scheduled for 7pm, Tuesday, May 30, in the AISD auditorium, 1111 W.
Sixth St. n
This article appears in May 26 • 1995 and May 26 • 1995 (Cover).