End the Philly School District’s unfortunate history of prioritizing the privileged | Opinion

For too long, Philly’s public schools have prioritized the most privileged students. But that may soon change.

Earlier this year, the School District announced changes to how students will be selected to attend coveted special admission schools, moving away from a system where test scores and family connections matter to one that relies on a centralized lottery. At some schools, students from historically underrepresented zip codes would have preference.

It is way past time for the School District to prioritize the students who have been shut out from the city’s special admission schools. The zip code preference, elimination of ranking PSSA scores for admission, and the lottery proposed in the new plan are all steps in the right direction.

But of course, this move has evoked backlash from some. At school board meetings and on social media, there has been outcry from parents who believe students at Philly’s elite middle schools should have automatic spots at Philly’s elite high schools. Central High, my alma mater, is one of the schools that would be impacted by this change. In alumni Facebook groups, I’ve seen some Central alum worry that expanding access to the school will somehow weaken it. City Councilmember David Oh, a prominent Central alum and Philly powerbroker, has even introduced a resolution for public hearings to examine the policy.

» READ MORE: Philly schools changed special admissions process in the name of equity, but some parents say it’s penalizing kids

For the last three decades, I have been a student, teacher, or scholar studying Philly schools. In 1989, as a seventh grader at Pepper Middle School, I gave little thought to the ways my grades and citywide test scores would influence my life trajectory. Why should any 11-year-old kid have to worry about that? I chose to attend Central High School because one of my classmates picked it. I didn’t realize then how we were privileged with things like additional curricular options and opportunities made possible through our alumni network, things that weren’t available in the same ways at comprehensive neighborhood schools.

I am now a professor and scholar whose research focuses on racism in school reform. Over the last 13 years, I’ve studied the politics of school reform in the School District since the 1960s. The outcry we’re seeing today is nothing new. Decisionmakers for the district have a long and unfortunate history of prioritizing people with privilege.

It happened in the 1970s when Superintendent Michael Marcase and the Board of Education almost walked back its district-wide school desegregation plan because 80 white students threatened to drop out of school rather than attend majority Black and Latinx Edison High.

It happened in the 1980s when Superintendent Constance Clayton’s modified desegregation plan made the district less segregated but also inadvertently provided more opportunities for white students to transfer schools than Black students.

It happened in the 1990s when Superintendent David Hornbeck tried to prioritize neighborhood high schools but was rebuffed by Mayor Ed Rendell, who sought to maintain an appeal for the white middle class. Hornbeck considered Philly’s special admission schools system-wide tracking and a threat to equity that privileged few and ignored the needs of way too many. While he worked in earnest on behalf of those who had been disregarded by this inequitable schooling practice, his vision was an affront to those who benefited from these special admission schools and programs, including some Black educators.

We do not have to let this history continue. Philadelphians who support equity and justice, who seek to be antiracist and anti-oppressive, should embrace the new criteria for admissions. The new policies would help begin to undo decades of disinvestment from the students most harmed by racist, classist, discriminatory policies.

Public schools are a public good, essential for an engaged, educated citizenry. Urban public schools should provide access to special admission schools for any Philly students interested in that type of academic challenge instead of maintaining privilege for just some.

Philly’s special admission schools educate far fewer low-income students than comprehensive neighborhood schools. At schools like Bartram, Edison, and Strawberry Mansion, 100% of students are low-income. At Masterman, just 38% of students are low-income.

Without a clear policy change, special admission citywide schools will continue to exclude students whose brilliance they can’t see, those who lack connections and access. We can’t accept that students from certain zip codes are unworthy of attending special admission schools.

It is time to implement schooling policies for the greater good, not a privileged few. The new policy for special admissions is one way to begin to dismantle the unjust systems that currently exist. For our public good, for our collective humanity, access to our most elite schools should exist for all of us. Or none of us.

Camika Royal is an associate professor of urban education at Loyola University Maryland. Her first book, Not Paved for Us: Black Educators and Public School Reform in Philadelphia, will be released in May and is available for preorder now.