Looking back at school choice decisions through a new lens of race and equity

This episode spoke to me as a parent getting ready to transition kids to high school. Our school choice decisions are not done after you pick an elementary school and Kansas City’s high schools, especially in the central and southern parts of the district, are intensely segregated. We all come to this conversation at different points and sometimes, like it was for this family, you look back after several years and see how easy it was to go along with things without really thinking about them, not realizing until other information was presented how our biases impacted our decisions. I love hearing from students and this bit of advice from 10th grader Olivia in the episode is something we all need to work on, “You gotta get comfortable being uncomfortable.”

Episode 2: The Bordon Family. After a conversation with their school district about who has has that privilege and the segregation that results from it, they made a change and sent both of their kids to global majority schools. Many years later, they reflect on that journey and how it has shaped their understanding of race, class, privilege, and education.

Love podcasts? Follow this link to find to all available episodes of the Integrated Schools podcasts.

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