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Karen Taylor, Second Vice-Chair, Hartford Public Schools |
Hartford Magnet Schools: A Beneficial Burden
By Mitchell Pfaff, Anna Barry, and Jack Ricciuti, Trinity College
Mitchell Pfaff (Trinity College ’21) is from Westwood Massachusetts and has a growing interest in politics.
Anna Barry (Trinity College ’21) is from Sutton, Massachusetts, and attended Worcester Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts. At Trinity, she is a member of the Equestrian Team and a writer for Trinity's chapter of HerCampus, which is an online magazine for college women.
Jack Ricciuti (Roxbury Latin ’17, Trinity College ’21) is a member of the varsity Trinity men’s lacrosse team and intends to major in political science or economics.
Karen Taylor doesn’t
ever shy away from a debate. When she engaged the mayor of Hartford in a heated
conversation about problems with the city’s schools, he walked away so
impressed that, soon after, he appointed her to the School Board.
In all
of her other projects, Karen is equally as focused and energetic about her
impact on the Hartford community. Aside from being a Member of the Hartford
School Board (and a Trinity College alumna), Karen is the Program Director of
the Consortium on Higher Achievement and Success, a board member at the
Hartford Public Library, and a supporter of the Capital Region Education
Council (CREC). A devoted mother, Karen wants to see a better future for the
city that she grew up in.[1]
In 1996, the Connecticut Supreme Court
found that Hartford schools were illegally segregated along racial and economic
lines in the Sheff v. O’Neill case.
The state was ordered to desegregate schools in the greater Hartford area. The
implementation and funding of CREC magnet schools was the State of
Connecticut’s response to the landmark decision.[2]
Today, however, the citizens of
Hartford remain divided when it comes to the CREC magnet schools. By attending
a meeting of the Hartford Board of Education and speaking with Karen Taylor we
were able to see these stark divisions. At the Board of Education meeting, we
witnessed passionate parents speak out against injustices as they voiced their
opinions on ways in which the Hartford school system needs to be improved.
These parents’ comments suggest that
some in Hartford believe that magnet schools are nothing but a drain on the
local school system. Karen Taylor provides another outlook – she sees magnet
schools as a way to bring the greater Hartford area together. By integrating
the schools in the greater Hartford area, Karen believes that the people of the
region will form connections that allow them to work together to solve shared
problems. In other words, magnet schools promote building what Harvard
Professor Robert Putnam calls social capital. Social capital refers to the value
of social interaction and trusting relationships.[3]
If the greater Hartford area is able to increase its levels of social capital,
then Hartford will marshal its resources collectively to become a more prosperous
city.
Benefits of Magnet Schools in Hartford
Even
two decades following the Sheff
ruling, Hartford schools remain not only under-funded but also extremely
segregated. While the Hartford region covers 87 square miles, the city itself
is only about 18 square miles today, surrounded by more than two dozen suburban
towns.[4]
In Hartford, Latinos and
African-Americans comprise more than three-quarters of the population. In
comparison, surrounding towns are predominantly white, as the table below
comparing Hartford, West Hartford, and East Hartford indicates.
Table: Racial and Ethnic Composition of Hartford and
Neighboring Cities
Hartford
|
East Hartford
|
West Hartford
|
|
Total
population
|
124,775
|
51,252
|
63,268
|
Percent
White (non-Hispanic)
|
16%
|
42%
|
75%
|
Percent
Black (non-Hispanic)
|
35%
|
24%
|
6%
|
Percent
Asian (non-Hispanic)
|
3%
|
6%
|
7%
|
Percent
Hispanic
|
43%
|
26%
|
10%
|
Source: U.S. Census, American Community
Survey 5-year estimates, 2011-2014
The CREC magnet schools offer some
children in Hartford an escape from the relatively low performing district
schools in the city. CREC advertises that, in contrast to the city’s schools, a
majority of CREC graduates attend post-secondary education programs.[5]
By providing students from lower income areas with the tools to succeed, magnet
schools facilitate the lessening of socio-economic inequality. Moreover, by drawing children from
across district lines, magnet schools bring together children and parents from
different backgrounds, who may have never met otherwise. This creates a form of
social capital known as bridging, which describes the growth of relationships
between diverse groups of people.[6]
People like Karen Taylor hope that by
bringing together people from the many different communities in the greater
Hartford area, they can facilitate the creation of a more unified Hartford region.
If they are able to break down the strong ethnic and socioeconomic divisions
that plague the region, they will form a more cohesive community, perhaps even
leading to a more even distribution of wealth.
Challenges with Magnet Schools in Hartford
While there are a great deal of
positive effects from magnet schools within Hartford, there are also a few
negatives in the way the system currently is implemented. One issue is the
potential damage to bonding social capital. Bonding is a form of social capital
that is created by forming deeper and more meaningful relationships among
people within a specific group.[7]
Though magnet schools have been able to successfully break down divisions along
ethnic and economic lines and across towns in greater Hartford, they have also
divided neighbors within Hartford. This division is the result of the lottery
system used to determine which children can go to a magnet school. To ensure
integration, placement through the lottery system factors in a student’s race
or ethnicity. Magnet schools admit no more than 75% students that are
Black and Latino, while Whites and Asians, referred to as “reduced isolation”
students, must make up the remaining 25% of each school.[8]
This 75-25 ratio in magnet schools was mandated as a way to desegregate schools. Meanwhile, segregation persists because many Blacks and Latinos within Hartford are eager to enroll in these schools, but Whites and Asians who primarily live in the suburbs have been less interested. Blacks and Latinos are forced to wait in line for a seat, unable to enroll until more reduced isolation students decide to join them. Currently half of Hartford’s youth are in CREC schools, but some observers suggest that interest from White and Asian students may have “maxed out.”[9] Therefore, those Black and Latino students who want a seat, but are unable to get one, are forced to go to segregated Hartford public schools.
As a result of these pressures, Karen Taylor has experienced Hartford parents complaining that the system is rigged if their child is not picked by the lottery. This anger can divide neighbors along the lines of those who attend magnet schools and those who attend regular public schools.
Hartford’s
Road to Recovery
Despite these challenges, Karen Taylor
sees magnet schools as an effective long-term solution to undo extreme
segregation and socioeconomic disparity in greater Hartford. Magnet schools do
have short-term consequences that can lead to more localized divisions among
neighbors and anger from those who are unable to benefit from the lottery
system. These smaller fractures within neighborhoods will slowly be healed as
the greater Hartford area becomes more unified and equal. Through the early
stages of the unification of Hartford, it will be rough and divisive. Having
only begun to receive attention and funding as recently as 2003, the CREC
schools are very much in their infancy.[10]
The process of undoing decades of segregation is a long and grueling one. While
the people of Hartford will continue to try to repair bonding social capital,
the responsibility for mending divides is not theirs alone. Those who live in
the suburbs of Hartford should work to benefit the greater Hartford area as a
whole by sending their kids to magnet schools. When more suburban students
attend CREC magnet schools, it allows more children from
Hartford to attend those same magnet schools.
As Karen Taylor
remarked, “the future is integrated.” All parts of the region will need to come
together, especially the suburbs, in order for the Hartford region to create
opportunities for the next generation that allow it to achieve its full
potential.
This article is the third in a series of four student blog posts featured from Trinity Assistant Professor Abigail Williamson's first-year seminar Civic Engagement and Community as described in my blog post Classroom to Community at Trinity.
Don Shaw, Jr.
Don Shaw, Jr.
Writer and Editor
RedTruckStonecatcher.com
RedTruckStonecatcher.com
Photo of Karen Taylor from the Hartford Public Schools' website
[1] Karen T. Taylor, “40 Under Forty 2017” Hartford Business.com, (July 14, 2017) http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20170714/PRINTEDITION/307129855
[2]
NAACP. "NAACP Legal
Defense Fund : Defend, Educate, Empower." Sheff v. O'Neill | NAACP LDF.
2014. Accessed December 10, 2017. http://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/sheff-v-oneill.
[3]
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2000).
[4] Chen, Xiangming, and Nick
Bacon. Confronting urban legacy: rediscovering Hartford and New England’s
forgotten cities. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2015.
[5]
CREC Foundation.
"Open Choice Registration." CREC. 2017. Accessed November 05, 2017.
[6]
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2000).
[7]
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2000).
[8] Torre, Vanessa de la, and Matthew Kauffman. “As Sheff V. O'Neill Case Persists,
Frustrations Grow Over Minority Students Left Out Of Magnet Schools.” Courant Community, Hartford Courant, 23
Sept. 2017, www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-sheff-case-discrimination-claim-20170912-story.html.
[9] Joffe-Walt, Chana.
WBEZ. 2015, August 7. 563: The Problem We All Live With- Part Two. This
American Life. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/563/the-problem-we-all-live-with-part-two?act=1
[10] Kennedy, Tim. "Hartford:
Integrating Schools in a Segregated Place." Teach For America. June 29,
2016. Accessed November 20, 2017. https://www.teachforamerica.org/one-day-magazine/hartford-integrating-schools-segregated-place.
This was a very eye-opening piece, thank you! Hartford is so lucky to have Karen Taylor - her dedication and passion is an inspiration for a bright and integrated future.
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