Death of a Suburban Dream: Race and Schools in Compton, California

Introduction

Introduction Marlene Romero watched as her son struggled in school. In his five years at McKinley Elementary in Compton, California, her child had worked hard to master basic math but, according to Romero, he had received no extra help from his teachers. In fact, by her count, “her son has had just one effective teacher in his five years at McKinley.”1 Feeling that her son was “trapped” in the school, Romero signed a petition demanding change and, working with a Los Angeles organization, Parent Revolution, she organized other parents to sign the petition as well.2 The group’s efforts bore fruit. In December 2010, 61 percent of the parents at McKinley voted no confidence in their neighborhood elementary school, activating California’s new “parent trigger” law. According to the state statute, when a majority of parents signed a petition to define their school as “failing,” the district had three options: replace staff or teachers, close the school, or give the school over to an independent organization to establish a charter school. In this case, the parents of 275 of McKinley’s 442 students demanded a charter school.3 It became the first use of such a law in the United States. It is not surprising that this battle over school failure happened in Compton , a Los Angeles area suburb where public schools have a particularly abysmal history. Indeed, in many ways the district’s schools have come to symbolize the larger national problem of educational bankruptcy. In 1993, seventeen years before the legislature enacted the trigger law, the district became the first in California to be taken over by the state for both financial and academic failure. After decades of neglect and corruption, the Compton Unified School District was left with dilapidated school plants and enormous debt. It had the worst test scores in the state and the lowest paid teachers in Los Angeles County.4 Students and educators in Compton went without up-to-date textbooks , adequate supplies, and comfortable classrooms. In addition to these 2 Introduction problems, and in many ways because of them, Compton could not attract the best teachers, retain many of the strong teachers it had, or replace those that left in any consistent manner. Compton’s debt became so overwhelming that, by March 1993, the district could neither pay its teachers for the rest of the school year nor afford to open the schools in the fall. Out of sheer desperation, the district requested a $20 million emergency loan from the state, opening the door to a takeover by the state government. California agreed to lend the district $10.5 million and took Compton Unified into receivership, seizing the powers of the district’s elected board of trustees and relegating it to an advisory role. A few months later the state added to its charge improving the academic performance of Compton Unified students.5 The presence of a state administrator in Compton prompted debate among local residents over who should hold power, as well as what constituted academic performance and what it meant to elevate it. Race played a central role in the debate over the takeover. Some residents deemed this involvement racist, claiming that the state seized power only because African Americans controlled the district of approximately 28,000 pupils, almost all of whom were black or Latino. Others in Compton’s black community claimed state officials had ignored the corruption, neglect, and academic failure in Compton precisely because it was a minority-run district. Surely, they argued, if Compton were a white district, the state would have intervened earlier. The state takeover indeed highlighted a deep connection between racial discrimination and educational opportunity. Local district officials did not regain full control until eight years later, in December 2001, only to have residents request state intervention at McKinley again in 2010.6 I first encountered Compton during the state receivership. On graduating from college in the mid-1990s, I joined Teach For America and was hired to teach middle school students in Compton Unified. During my time as a teacher in the district I came to know the students, parents, and educators. They not only opened a classroom to me but also entrusted me with their concerns about and desires for their children, schools, and community. Together we shared many hopes and frustrations—and there was much about which to be frustrated. Even under state control, problems still pervaded every aspect of the district. I felt this daily. Each of my...