Colonialism, Not Reform: New Orleans Schools Since Katrina • An Interview with Karran Harper Royal.

“…in 18 cities that have been fighting school closures throughout the country. The Listening Project has been holding meetings where we ask people in the communities how they have been personally affected by school closures, turnarounds, phase-outs and co-locations.

…We’re looking at the disparate impact of these education policies on communities of color—the disinvestment that has occurred in these communities when schools close, and the negative impact on children with disabilities when they have to switch schools or travel miles and miles, waking up early in the morning to go to a school across town because their neighborhood school has closed.

We’ve put together a document called the “Sustainable School Success Model,” which outlines a more sustainable way to transform schools and communities. Under the Race to the Top grants, schools have to use one of four models, mostly based on closing schools or firing staff. We want the U.S. Department of Education to look at our Sustainable School Success Model as a fifth option so that school districts don’t have to slash and burn.”

Not to harp on a subject I wrote about in the first post on this page or anything but….

Broaden the context by substituting the words, “vulnerable communities” for “communities of color” and what she describes is exactly the way it should be done.