Dr. H.T. Sanchez will deliver testimony to the Senate Committee on Finance today at 9 a.m. at the state capitol.
Sanchez will speak about Senate Bill 1371, which calls for phasing out desegregation funding, putting school districts in a position of losing money used to fund programs that are required by federal court order.
Tucson Unified School District is one of two major districts under such a federal court order.
Dr. Sanchez will fight tooth and nail for the money that the District uses as a slush fund rather than to secure equal access to a quality education for all children.
“I believe it is important for our legislators to understand the importance of desegregation funding and the complexities” of TUSD, said Sanchez in a statement released on Tuesday.
The committee meeting will take place at Arizona State Senate Capitol Complex, 1700 West Washington, Phoenix, AZ, in Senate Hearing Room 3.
On January 16, 2015 federal Judge David Bury issued a scathing indictment of Tucson Unified School District and its handling of the magnet school program. Judge Bury found, “…. the Court is concerned that unitary status may be difficult to attain when the USP’s key component for integration, a Magnet Plan, exists in name only.
“It is not as if TUSD does not know what needs to be done,” continued the judge. “Each of the existing 20 magnet schools/programs have been critiqued regarding their deficiencies since 2011, with detailed annual recommendations spelled out for improvements.”
In 2011, former TUSD administrator Dr. Lupita Garcia first revealed the failings of the District’s magnet program, as detailed in the Comprehensive Magnet Program Review, conducted by Education Consulting Services. The report offered specific criticisms and recommendations of the magnet program.
Under the direction of the Governing Board controlled by Adelita Grijalva, the District ignored the report and according to sources, District officials ordered that it be “round filed.” The District proceeded to fight any changes to the woefully un-magnetic magnet schools.
As the judge noted in his ruling, “Integration and student achievement are linked together because the goal of a magnet school is by definition “to attract a racially diverse student body by creating a school so distinctive and appealing – so magnetic – that it will draw a diverse range of families from throughout the community eager to enroll their children, even if it means having them bused to a different, and perhaps, distant neighborhood. To do so, the magnet schools must offer educational programs of high caliber that are not available in other area schools.” (2011 Magnet Study (Doc. 1738) at 3.) In the best magnet schools, the magnet components, many of which are associated with effective schools, add up to higher student achievement. In other words, high academic standards will draw students to a magnet school, and an effective magnet program will improve student achievement.”
The District has claimed that the USP prevents or otherwise hinders the closure of segregated and or failing magnet schools. However Judge Bury writes, “It makes little sense to interpret USP § II.E.2 as precluding the timely elimination of non-functioning magnet schools or programs, which would be contrary to the purposes and goals of the USP that all students to be afforded an opportunity to attend an integrated school….”
Bury wrote:
Pursuant to the Revised CMP, TUSD also revised the Magnet Plan of Action 2014-15, which reflects that Dodge MS and Palo Verde High School meet both tests, integration and student achievement. Dodge MS and Palo Verde HS will proceed pursuant to a Sustainability Plan.
The following schools are “A” or “B” schools: Carrillo ES, Davis ES, Drachman ES, Ochoa ES, Roskruge K-8, Mansfeld MS, and Cholla and Tucson high schools. All of these schools are racially concentrated and must become integrated, pursuant to an Improvement Plan.
The remainder of the schools currently designated as magnet schools do not meet the student achievement standards. They are C or D schools, and only three of them, Booth-Ficket K-8, Borton ES and Cragin ES, are NOT racially concentrated.
Racially concentrated means a school “in which any racial or ethnic group exceeds 70% of the school’s total enrollment.” (USP (Doc. 1713) § II.B.1. These schools need Improvement Plans to become A or B schools and to attain integration.
Only two schools in the Magnet Plan meet the definition of a magnet school or magnet program by way of having strong academic standards and having integrated student bodies. The CMP allows ineffective magnet schools and programs to exist until after SY 2018-19. The Revised CMP allows deficient magnet schools and programs to exist until after SY 2016-17. Importantly, the schedule proposed by TUSD does not reflect a deadline for elimination, but only a date when elimination will be “considered” by the District.
The judge ruled against the District’s plan which provided that the “period for improvement begins at the close of this school year (SY 2014-15) through SY 2015-16 and ends in June after SY 2016-17.”
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