School closures are on the horizon for Portland Public Schools, and now several dozen parents are calling for the district to begin with Access Academy, its specialized school for talented and gifted students that has a waiting list longer than the number of students currently enrolled.
We need more schools like this then, not fewer.
“Our preference would be to bring the money [that it costs to run Access, or about $3.4 million annually] to the neighborhood schools and serve kids there. We are concerned that a program like this detracts from how neighborhood schools could be even better,” said Nicholas Hengen Fox, a parent whose child attends Sabin Elementary. “[Access] serves only about 8% of the students who are qualified. If it is really such a vital service, then we are doing a bad job of providing services to all the kids qualified to receive them.”
It is a vital service—we agree—and Portland Public Schools is doing a bad job providing services to all the kids qualified to receive them. We agree again.
…Access families say the program’s current location in Southwest Portland has likely contributed to its critics’ concerns that the program serves fewer Black and Latino students and more students from higher income families than district averages.
What we should want is for talented students of whatever race to receive an education appropriate for their gifts. Anything else damages students and ultimately society.