At the Hartford Schools Board of Education’s Policy Committee last week, the board, or the three members who attended the meeting, continued the struggle to craft a district equity policy.  While marveling at the rhetoric they have included in the policy, they fail to realize that to marvel at something is to show wondrous ignorance in that thing.  While marveling at their crafted equity policy language, the BOE shows ignorance to the inequities currently taking place in HPS.

What is intended to be an equity policy for the district states that its purpose is “to ensure fair and equitable educational opportunities for all students.”  The district currently warehouses special education and English learning students in Advanced Placement classes due to the lack of equitable space and opportunities for those students.  Bulkeley High School no longer has a school library.  Global Communications Academy students do not have a gymnasium or an auditorium.  Due to the sham world languages program at HPS, African American students born and raised in Hartford do not have an equitable opportunity to earn the Connecticut Seal of Biliteracy on their high school diploma.  There are special needs students in regular classrooms who are not being served by paraprofessionals or outplaced as common sense (and law) would suggest, creating an inequitable and restrictive learning environment for all.  Students in some schools receive world language instruction daily while students in other schools receive world language instruction once a week.

While the board marvels at its creation, the above instances of inequality fly in the face of the “general statement of policy,” which says: “Academic participation and outcomes, not intentions, shall be the measure of whether we are successful.”  They have not been successful in ensuring fair and equitable educational opportunities for all students in the past, and having a group of non-educators craft rhetoric into a paper policy will not, under this district’s current leadership, bring success in the future.

The district reportedly sought input from parents and students regarding the crafting of the equity policy.  An item of feedback from one parent asked, “How do you measure if the policy is being followed?  How do you hold individuals accountable?”  With HPS’ current leadership team, and with this current board of education, accountability must be done by those asking about accountability - parents, students, and the community.  Do not stop talking when the district folks walk away, maintain your voice and walk after them!