Statement of the Burlington Coalition for Community Schools on Poverty and Education in Burlington

The problem of poverty in the Burlington Schools is real. Close to 50% of students in the schools live in families who don't earn enough to consistently meet all basic needs. As we have been participating in discussions about poverty and the schools over the past year, it has become clear to us, both from reading numerous studies and from our own experience, that the underlying issues of low wages, poor housing, inability to pay for healthcare, lack of transportation, and insufficient government safety nets make it incredibly difficult for many students to learn in the schools.

We do not believe that any proposals that consist only of reconfiguring the distribution of students from low-income families will address any of these underlying issues. While economic heterogeneity clearly has benefits, we believe that there are ways to accomplish this while maintaining and improving the existing six neighborhood elementary schools.

We do believe that the school district, city and community have an obligation to address the underlying issues of poverty, and therefore we suggest the following approaches:

We call upon the Burlington School District to:

• Foster PTOs and other forms of parent involvement, recognizing that differences in wealth between schools will require greater resources be invested in fostering parent involvement in some schools;


• Maintain neighborhood elementary schools, so that all parents have a chance to be involved in their children's school;


• Working more actively with PTOs from schools in lower-income areas to recruit families who have choices;


• Encourage schools to be open for parent enrichment and development;


• Demonstrate a commitment to economic justice by paying livable wages;


• Play a leadership role in educating parents about the school district's ability to educate all students by taking firm public stands in support of:
  
  1. Universal Health Care;
  
  
  2. Federal spending that adequately funds education and antipoverty efforts;
  
  
  3. Repeal of the No Child Left Behind Act
  
  
  4. The need to increase the State's per pupil base education grant as enrollment declines state-wide, and move from regressive property taxes to progressive income and wealth taxes as the primary funding source for our schools.

We call upon the City of Burlington to:

• Continue facilitating the construction of family-friendly affordable housing in Burlington and to increase enforcement and penalties for landlords who do not keep their apartments safe and healthy for families.


• Play a leadership role in coordinating city, nonprofit and school efforts to
  
  1. provide after-school and summer learning and enrichment opportunities for all students, regardless of family income;
  
  
  2. address underlying issues of poverty.


• Play a leadership role in educating citizens about the school district's ability to educate all students by taking firm public stands in support of:
  
  1. Universal Health Care;
  
  
  2. Federal spending that adequately funds education and antipoverty efforts;
  
  
  3. Repeal of the No Child Left Behind Act;
  
  
  4. The need to increase the State's per pupil base education grant as enrollment declines state-wide, and move from regressive property taxes to progressive income and wealth taxes as the primary funding source for our schools.

As the Coalition, we recognize that the involvement of parents and community members is critical to the success of any effort, and we are committed to integrating our schools more into the community, fostering greater parent involvement, and working with parents district-wide, nonprofit organizations, and the city and school administration to address the underlying issues of poverty in our community.

PTO Goals: Attached is a list of goals developed by members of the Barnes community. We believe that pursuing such goals in the context of broader commitments by the city and school district will make all of our schools attractive to families who live in the neighborhood. We believe that attempts to increase economic heterogeneity of the schools will not be successful if mandated from above, but only if the schools, parents and city work together to make every neighborhood school a place of learning and community.