Teaching Over Policing

This is the first part of an ongoing series of articles meant to outline community-based alternatives to aggressive policing that can address violence, social problems and economic inequity faced by heavily policed Black and Brown communities.

Schools have long been the staging grounds for fights against systemic racism. From the integration of schools following Brown V. Board to debates about busing and school voucher systems today, it has been clear that unequal education is at the root of many systemic inequalities for Black Americans. Yet in all those years it seems little progress has been made. Today Black students are still far more likely to receive multiple suspensions or dropout, and levels of school segregation are comparable to those of the 1960’s.

Education not only has a direct impact on the economic outcomes for communities, but also influences the mental and emotional health of students. Where safe and adequate education is lacking, many students face trauma and mental health issues starting from a young age that impact them throughout life. In this way the most essential step to addressing systemic racism and inequality must begin in schools.

The most recent move to invest in better education for communities of color is a push to take police officers out of schools. In the wake of protests against police violence following the filmed murder of George Floyd, activists across the country are calling for a removal of police from schools. This is not only because school officers tend to punish and at times use force against students of color more often, but because they drain funding from public education that they argue could be better spent.

In Chicago the Board of Education recently voted to renew a contract to pay $33 million to Chicago Police Department for the salaries, benefits, training and equipment for in-school officers. The contract won despite a push by activists and the growing prospect of extended virtual learning that will leave school empty for part of the year. Recent reporting also shows that these officers have their full yearly salaries paid by Chicago Public Schools, even though they only work in the schools during the school year.

Putting money budgeted toward schools into policing is particularly egregious for many Black communities that feel their schools are already underfunded and neglected by the city. Last year, while CPS paid $33 million to police officers, teachers had to strike and delay nearly two weeks of school in order to receive basic funding for smaller class sizes, social workers and librarians.

It also adds insult to injury as Chicago has closed over two hundred schools in the past two decades, far more than any other city in America. The large majority of those closings have been in Black and Brown neighborhoods. Out of the 70,160 students affected by school closings, 88% are Black and 10% Latinx. The excuses behind these closings are under-enrollment and under-performance of students, and more schools have been opened the shuffle students into. However, outside of closing and opening schools, the city seems to have no plan (or funding) to increase enrollment or scholastic performance. Meanwhile students who live through school closings show poorer performance throughout the rest of their education. The closings also come with mass layoffs of community members, many of whom are never rehired. With each school closing the educational prospects of Black students and economic resources of their family members are further scaled back.

The violence and lack of accountability of police is certainly the focus of these protests. However, much of the anger comes from the priorities communicated in police budgets. All of the same communities where police stop residents multiple times a day, arrest for minor infractions or start violent altercations, have seen little investment in any of their community resources. That is most palpable in the failing schools, which is why the fight over police contracts paid by public schools is so salient.

Activists are also quick to point out that police officers in school can do real harm to students. For many Black residents, their first interactions with police or the carceral system happen in school. This not only causes trauma for Black children at a young age, but also sets them up for a life-time of adversarial relationships with police and the criminal justice system.

There are of course infamous instances of police using excessive force against young Black students while in school. But it is also true on a systemic level that Black students see higher rates of punishment and arrest by school officers. Black students are three times more likely to be suspended than white students. Suspensions have been linked not only to worse educational outcomes, but also behavioral ones. Students who are suspended from school are more likely to be arrested for getting into trouble on the streets, when they should be in school.

Even while in school, Black students have a high risk of being arrested and sent to juvenile court. While Black students make up 16% of students in public schools, they account for 31% of all in-school arrests. These arrests can result from anything from threatening a teacher to skipping school and being referred to truancy court. And just like in the rest of the criminal justice system, Black children in juvenile courts face harsher punishments than non-Back minors.

The probem of criminalizing students while in school has become so prevalent and well-known that it is known throughout America as the school-to-prison pipleline. Yet little has been done to address the issue. Even as schools moved online in response to the Coronavirus epidemic, students are still being put in juvenile detention. In Michigan, Grace, a fifteen year-old Black girl diagnosed with ADD, was arrested and taken to juvenile detention because she failed to attend her online classes. This shows not only how frivolously Black students are put in jail, but also that students mental disabilities and learning disorders are more likely to face punishment than treatment or counseling through school.

Being incarcerated as a child has severe emotional and mental impacts on young people. It can cause lasting trauma, separation anxiety or aggression. For many older children, it is just the first in a lifetime of incarceration. Especially in inner cities, many juvenile detention facilities are little better than prison. Students who have no history or affiliation with gangs when they enter juvie may have to join gangs to avoid violence while incarcerated. In this way the harsh punishment Black students face in school leads directly to higher rates of crime and violence in their neighborhoods.

With first-hand experience of how police officers in schools directly feed the school to prison pipeline, it’s clear to see why so many activists are eager to stop paying for police in their neighborhood schools and put those funds to better use. At the core of that request is a need for a better way. Mass closing and a new wave of charter schools have failed to bring any more educational opportunity to Black neighborhoods. Now activists are demanding the money for those detrimental approaches be put towards funding better alternatives.

Part of the Chicago Teacher’s Union demands during their 11-day strike last fall was funding for Restorative Justice Coordinators at schools. The city agreed to funding only thirty positions in all of CPS to go to new counselors, librarians or restorative justice coordinator, and fifteen of those positions went towards restorative justice programs. Through restorative justice programs, difficult behavior can be dealt with in a constructive way. Rather than resorting to punishment or imprisonment, students are taught to address harms, and prevent future harms. Not only are these processes less traumatic to children or detrimental to their education, but it actually prepares them for higher functioning in life. By creating peaceful processes to deal with conflict, it helps show Black and Brown students strategies to avoid and end violence which is common in their daily lives.

However, these early moves towards restorative justice are proving insufficient. With almost no funding in the program, teachers and principles practicing restorative justice in schools are seeing mixed results. Experts in restorative justice like Ana Mercado, the director of the restorative justice program for the non-profit Alternatives which provides counselors to CPS, has called it an “unfunded mandate”. She points out the principles implementing the program are not given support or resources by the district to make it effective. This program with it’s handful of counselors across over five-hundred schools could certainly benefit from some of the millions that go to putting hundreds of officers in schools, and subsequently thousands of students in the court system.

As with everything, much of the issues in public schools come down to funding. The way that dollars are allocated to specific schools and districts are largely through property taxes. This system creates a self-perpetuating cycle where areas with less economic activity or opportunity, and therefore less wealthy residents and lower home values, have less money going into their schools. But with under-funded schools those families never receive greater opportunity and see higher rates of crime. This way, when local politicians or school boards blame individual schools for under-performing, they provide no resources to help improve performance, only use it as an excuse to close schools and shuffle more funding away from the communities that desperately need it.

One solution to this cycle of unequal and largely segregated schools is to pick up the busing integration movement that were introduced to integrate schools in the 60’s. Despite the proven effectiveness of busing integration, it faced major backlash from white families. Even where local governments try to introduce busing programs they are met with resistance by mostly white neighborhoods. As a result, along with antiquated anti-busing laws, it busing integration is rare and schools are just as segregated as ever.

However with the focus on systemic racism, busing is receiving more attention and support. Throughout decades it has proven to be effective in closing the education gap and creating greater long-term economic success for Black students, as well as unlearning racial biases for whiter schools. It is a relatively simple and effective way to put resources from whiter, wealthier neighborhoods towards education for Black and Brown students.

Better integration of schools is effective and increasingly popular, if difficult to achieve. It is, at best, a long-game approach to addressing systemic inequality and institutionalized racism. In essence, education reforms are always long-term solutions to long-term problems. Education is an investment in the success of children when they grow up, and puts the responsibility for social and economic success on their backs. It is possibly the most important aspect to healing and revitalizing communities.

However, if the communities children grow up in are not safe or prosperous, they will always have greater barriers to success and health. Taking Black students to better funded white schools will give them better education. But until Black schools and neighborhoods are funded and given the resources for success, many basic and necessary solutions will remain out of reach.