In San Antonio, Six Inner-City Schools Close and the Media Fiddles
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Posted by Barbara Renaud Gonzalez April 24th, 2008 |
Last week, Michelle Jimenez Reyes, mother of a Travis Elementary School student in San Antonio’s inner-city schools, discovered that her daughter’s school library was closed – with eight weeks to go before the end of the schoolyear.
It was only the latest shocker since the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) announced they were shuttering six inner-city schools – citing decreasing enrollment. The city of San Antonio is one of the largest cities in Texas, and with over a million residents, is not losing population. It’s building new schools – in the farthest reaches of its spidery suburbs as its citizens move out in search of jobs and cheap housing, leaving behind the oldest and most valuable inner-city housing stock remaining in Texas.
Since the surprising announcement from the SAISD in February, Jimenez Reyes has organized a concerted protest of parents and activists, called Keep Travis Open (www.keeptravisopen.com), a defiant, grassroots, challenge to the closing of historic, blue mosaic-tiled schools in some of the oldest neighborhoods in Texas.
The story of thousands of schoolchildren without a library and books should be front-page news. Since when did sending inner-city children to bigger schools become a positive educational step in a city concerned with high dropout rates? The story of established neighborhood schools – with acceptable school rankings – closing their doors for lack of enrollment should be a reason for investigative stories by the media. The community should be outraged, right?
Not in San Antonio. Who’s going to tell this story? Here, one Hearst chain newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News is blitzing its ads on the front page as it seeks even more profits. Corporations, according to Jimenez Reyes, are the real power behind the closing of the six schools in a balance-the-budget bottom-line mentality as the developers seek prime inner-city real estate.
Accordingly, the newspaper’s editorial legitimized the SAISD’s budget-tightening decision as a positive move toward staunching the city’s high dropout rate.
On the other side of the street, the alternative paper, the San Antonio Current stuffed with sex ads, doesn’t have the time to follow the story.
As the television stations cover the story in their usual spurts and spins, sentimental entertainment for the masses in a city that is one of the poorest and least educated in the country.
Michelle De LaRosa, reporter for the San Antonio Express-News, interviewed the Travis Elementary School parents after the library’s closing. According to Reyes Jimenez, she took notes but didn’t ask questions. She seemed unresponsive, and she told the parents she wasn’t sure she could do a story. When the parents around her brought up the SAEN’s corporate interests, she got defensive.
“What do you want me to do? I also work for a corporation.”
May 1st, 2008 22:46
[…] Barbara at WIMN’s Voics blogs: The story of thousands of schoolchildren without a library and books should be front-page news. Since when did sending inner-city children to bigger schools become a positive educational step in a city concerned with high dropout rates? The story of established neighborhood schools – with acceptable school rankings – closing their doors for lack of enrollment should be a reason for investigative stories by the media. The community should be outraged, right? […]
May 4th, 2008 18:57
[…] Posted by Jack Stephens on May 1, 2008 Barbara at WIMN’s Voics blogs: The story of thousands of schoolchildren without a library and books should be front-page news. Since when did sending inner-city children to bigger schools become a positive educational step in a city concerned with high dropout rates? The story of established neighborhood schools – with acceptable school rankings – closing their doors for lack of enrollment should be a reason for investigative stories by the media. The community should be outraged, right? […]
May 12th, 2008 07:52
Well, coming from the West side and a full blown SAISD kid, you would think that more people would be outraged! However, unfortunately to be honest as I grew up I noticed how SAISD lacked many opportunities and funds for their schools than the other districts. I can remember when we had to pack our band instruments with us in the bus going to football games and wearing 10 year old band uniforms that didnt fit at Brackenridge, while other schools had their own intrument trucks with their school name written on it and had their uniforms pressed before games! I also noticed when I was getting a certificate for teaching elementary children, how the teachers bought chalk, colors and markers from their own pockets for the classroom. So I can beleive that the inner-city school children will not get as much publicity for not having books as you would think. Going to a small inner-city school didnt stop me from continuing my education, however it did make it harder. I think it also made me stronger! I guess there is better media out there for crime, weather, and sports. Unfortunately, people miss what they should be focusing on…the children!
January 15th, 2010 16:34
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