This is a good start
Dear Editor:
I applaud Boston Public School Committee’s move to allocate Exam School seats based on zip code population. While this decision may reduce Exam School spots for Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury students, the increased seats for East Boston and Codman Square students begins to undo the effects of racism and classism on Exam School enrollment. Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury are affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods. JP and West Roxbury’s over-representation in the elite Exam Schools reflects a long local and national history where educational opportunity is concentrated in white communities, to the particular exclusion of Black, Latino, and non-English speaking children. By allocating specific spots for students from lower-income neighborhoods which are home to higher Black and Latino populations, the School Committee has laid the ground-word for a more equitable and racially just Boston. This is a good start. Moving forward, I invite the School Committee and the families in Boston, to continue to reform the Exam Schools to undo the effects of racism on our city. These exam schools, and the concentration of educational opportunity they represent, has always been an obstacle to making each Boston middle and high school an elite and well funded place for our children to learn. Let us all rally to continue this important work.
David Vitale-Wolff