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BAY GUARDIAN RAISES HELL ONE LAST TIME WINTER 2015
ISSUE 16
EDITORS’ NOTE:
Choice Is Resegregating Public Schools I
GRATTAN ELEMENTARY: 56% WHITE
KIPP BAYVIEW ACADEMY: 63% BLACK
nside this edition of the Public Press, you will find a publication that commemorates the storied 48-year history of one of America’s earliest and most important alternative weekly newspapers: The San Francisco Bay Guardian. The day the San Francisco Media Co. killed the Bay Guardian in mid-October, we offered to print whatever the laid-off editorial staff wanted to give us to reflect on their situation as an eight-page insert in our fall edition — if they could get it to us in a week. Instead, they chose to take three months and put together a thoughtful retrospective that makes an eloquent and impassioned case for preserving a diversity of voices in local media. The Guardian’s closure shocked the local journalism community as much as it did the progressive political constituency with whom the paper sided on so many efforts over 48 years. When the Chronicle was timid, the Guardian was fearless. When the Examiner was superficial, the Guardian dived into public records. And when SF Weekly was cynical, the Guardian oozed idealism. No publication in the city came closer to the journalist’s creed: Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. While the Public Press was not founded on the same business model and shies away from political advocacy, we share the aim of holding the powerful accountable. We hope the Guardian-in-Exile staff will find new and innovative ways to continue independent muckraking in San Francisco, a city that sure needs it.
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WHITE AND BLACK ENROLLMENT FALLS CHANGES PUT ASIANS, LATINOS IN MAJORITY PAGE B1
section WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL: 69% ASIAN
System Intended to Give Parents Educational Options Separates Students by Race, Language, Family Income
“S
eparate but equal” education has been illegal in the United States since 1964. Since then, the San Francisco Unified School District has struggled to racially integrate classrooms, and today few educators and parents publicly dispute the idea that diversity is good for kids and for society as a whole. Yet despite their aspirations and efforts, San Francisco schools are increasingly segregated. Last school year, a single racial group formed a majority at six out of 10 schools. Our investigation tries to find out why. The answer, we discovered, is not simple — and the solutions will not be simple either. Many forces are driving this segregation. The district offers parents a choice of schools, but not everyone has the resources to take advantage of the dizzyingly complex system. Cuts to the school bus fleet make it hard for
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section San Jose removes sprawling homeless camp, leaving residents out in cold. PAGE A4
Transportation shapes education choices PAGE B2
JUNIPERO SERRA ELEMENTARY: 71% LATINO
disadvantaged and moderate-income San Franciscans to reach the best-performing schools. Meanwhile, the city is undergoing a dramatic demographic and economic transformation, with the departure of white and black students, leaving Asians and Latinos as the largest groups. We found that San Francisco public schools are becoming economically distinct from the city as a whole, as many affluent families send their kids to private schools. In short, growing income disparities pit choice and diversity against each other. New policies could make a difference. But school district leaders will need to find new tools to reverse the resegregation trend.
PIER 70 BAYFRONT DEVELOPMENT COULD BE UNDERWATER BY YEAR 2100 DUE TO SEA-LEVEL RISE. PAGE A3 VIRTUAL-REALITY 3-D INSTALLATION DEMONSTRATES HOW BAY WATERS COULD ENCROACH ON SHORELINES. PAGE A3 BOOK EXAMINES LINK BETWEEN MENTAL ILLNESS AND HOMELESSNESS, FAULTS S.F. FOR INADEQUATE HOUSING, MEDICAL CARE. PAGE A5 DROPPED CHARGES AGAINST 49ER RAY MCDONALD PAR FOR COURSE IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROSECUTIONS. PAGE A5
EVER-CHANGING DEFINITIONS OF RACE, ETHNICITY MEASURING DIVERSITY WITH ARBITRARY CATEGORIES PAGE B1
TIMELINE: S.F. SCHOOL INTEGRATION: 1971–2014 PAGE B4
TRENDS IN TEST SCORES AND INCOME
LEAST-DIVERSE SCHOOLS REVEAL GAPS IN ACHIEVEMENT PAGE B7
AFFLUENT FAMILIES RAISE MORE FOR THEIR SCHOOLS DATA SHOW UNEQUAL PARENT FUNDRAISING PAGE B7
Visualizing patterns in diversity, achievement PAGE B7 AND B8
STORIES START ON PAGE B1
STATE’S PUBLIC PAYROLL DATABASE LACKS TRANSPARENCY, LIMITING THE ABILITY TO TRACK HOW TAXPAYER FUNDS ARE SPENT. PAGE A6 STUDY QUANTIFIES PRICE OF SMOKING IN CALIFORNIA — ILLNESSES COST STATE $18.1B IN 2009. PAGE A6 HIGH COST OF LIVING, EXPENSIVE HOUSING IN SAN FRANCISCO HIT TEACHERS HARD. PAGE A7
MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE AMOUNTS TO NOTHING IF YOUR BOSS FLOUTS THE LAW. PAGE A7 VOLUNTEERS TRANSFORM S.F. INDUSTRIAL DUMP INTO THRIVING WETLAND HABITAT. PAGE A8
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