QUEST on Facebook:
If you followed the 2015-17 push in Boston for Unified Enrollment (also called Common Enrollment), you might know that this was a strategy by education privatizers to blur the lines between district and charter schools. The effort was dropped after a lot of push back (see QUEST's website for a paper we wrote on the subject).
Oakland CA was also a target of Common Enrollment, and though the full on effort wasn't implemented, there was a lot of information and resource sharing that went on regarding charter school enrollment, basically a "School Finder" type tool.
Well... yesterday Oakland took a major step in pushing back again. Their school board decoupled the enrollment system completely so they will no longer have any shared information and essentially says that no OUSD resources, including person hours, will be used to market/support any non OUSD school, private or charter.
[Thanks to Oakland's Kim Davis for sharing this info.]
![If you followed the 2015-17 push in Boston for Unified Enrollment (also called Common Enrollment), you might know that this was a strategy by education privatizers to blur the lines between district and charter schools. The effort was dropped after a lot of push back (see QUESTs website for a paper we wrote on the subject).
Oakland CA was also a target of Common Enrollment, and though the full on effort wasnt implemented, there was a lot of information and resource sharing that went on regarding charter school enrollment, basically a School Finder type tool.
Well... yesterday Oakland took a major step in pushing back again. Their school board decoupled the enrollment system completely so they will no longer have any shared information and essentially says that no OUSD resources, including person hours, will be used to market/support any non OUSD school, private or charter.
[Thanks to Oaklands Kim Davis for sharing this info.]](https://questparents.org/wp-content/plugins/custom-facebook-feed-pro/assets/img/placeholder.png)
Emergency injunction was denied and assignments to exam schools were sent out yesterday.
"Although the admission changes are for only one year, the federal court rulings could have far-reaching implications for future exam-school admissions policies." WE HOPE SO!
www.bostonglobe.com
In their ruling, the judges questioned the plaintiffs' claims of racial discrimination and cast doubt on whether their appeal would ultimately succeed. School officials quickly sent out acceptance let...Schoolyard News coverage of the private fundraising analysis released last week by QUEST.
QUEST documents huge inequities in private donations to BPS schools
schoolyardnews.com
Fundraising fills in the holes in BPS budgets for a few schools — but most get little or nothing."The way we see libraries is, we see the schools with these amazing libraries, and that has an impact on the students. That teaches the students that they’re not worthy enough for having that, they don’t have the privilege to have a library, and that creates a very unwelcoming environment, an environment where students feel less than others because they don’t tend to have the same resources."
Two BSAC reps speak out about unfair treatment of non-exam high schools
schoolyardnews.com
“In [the district’s] eyes, we are like lower schools”Advocacy for Quality, Equity, and Transparency Within the Boston Public Schools System
QUEST Parents Release Analysis of Boston Public School Fundraising
April 13, 2021
In 2018, Boston Public Schools did an audit of private fundraising in its 125 schools. The information was quietly released in school-by-school reports.
QUEST has now collated the data in easy-to-read spreadsheet, examined it for racial and socio-economic inequities, and requests further study and policies to address the disparities. We believe it’s especially critical to pay attention to this information now, as Boston examines its exam school admissions policies and schools struggle to recover from the effects of Covid-19.
Current issues QUEST is focused on:
Facilities, Resources and School Closings
Quality education requires a commitment by the school district to the efficient, sustained, and equitable use of resources.
Privatization of Education
Public education, including its physical facilities, is a public good that should be under community control.
Student Assignment
All students should have equitable access to quality school options through a transparent and accessible system of school assignment.
ABOUT QUEST
QUEST (Quality Education for Every Student) is a volunteer grassroots organization of parents with children in Boston Public Schools. Founded in 2012, the group initially came together over concerns about the inequities of proposed changes to the BPS assignment system. We continue to ask how education policies and practices can help to dismantle past oppression, increase opportunity, and provide greater access to quality education for all.
Copyright © 2018 QUEST