Here’s the problem with the Minneapolis school change process: The administrators are ready for us to all move on together, while we, the parents, are still in the early stages of the Kubler-Ross model’s stages of grief. Denial, anger, and bargaining were paramount tonight at the F2 (Kingfield and East Lake Harriet) neighborhood meeting: “At least let my kid finish 5th grade!”

As I said before, the district runs the risk of driving out families — especially those with, say, a 2nd grader who is not guaranteed that she’ll be able to complete 6th grade at her current school. (Grandfathering, they said tonight in no uncertain terms, is not guaranteed.) Families — rightly, I think — expressed dismay at the thought that they chose where to live based on current school guidelines, and that now everything could look completely different in 2010. Many families who attend language-based, open, and other magnet schools are going to find themselves choosing between program and location. And I’m not convinced that the school district has adequately quantified what the costs to parents might be if they choose to drive their kids farther or move.

In laying out the case for a stronger school district, administrators (and, it should be noted, many volunteers, as our district administration is stretched too thin) are asking us to take a big leap of faith.

So let’s go there.

Economically, what happens if this all unfolds as the district predicts? That after a couple of years, disgruntled families move back, as Jackie Turner, head of student placement services, says they will do “when they see the good product we can deliver”? Consistently, Turner has talked about the importance of eliminating wasteful spending on half-empty buildings in order to redirect that money to raising the rigor of all its programs.

Let’s get to what we’re really talking about, and that is the continued huge disparity between graduation rates for whites, which remain at some of the highest in the nation, and those for black and Hispanic students, which slide off into an abyss. This snip from a City Pages blog bears repeating:

For instance, the Class of 2005 graduation rate for black students in Minnesota was 39 percent compared to the national average of 55 percent. For Hispanic students, the graduation rate of 42 percent in Minnesota compared to 58 percent nationwide.

What is behind graduation? I would argue that is purely expectation. And those expectations come from money — not necessarily having it yourself, but at least rubbing up against others who have it and who make things happen because of it, and who can give you access to the same kinds of chances that it provides. I’m talking middle-class wealth here. The American Dream. (Yes I’m going to point to Barack Obama, who came from a poor background, but ultimately ended up where he is today because people in his life helped him have expectations, and helped him get the chance to go to Harvard.)

Jackie Turner pointed out that in our highly segregated city, socioeconomic status, free lunch status, and zip code directly tie, in many cases, to race. And we can see clearly that the current system is not working, overwhelmingly, for non-white students.

(One can argue, and this has been another running subtext in this debate, that our schools alone cannot solve the socioeconomic and racial stuff. But that’s not the way we have acted, since we consistently say that diversity matters in our schools. Turner says MPS accepts that our school district takes on its back the integration that we have not so far made happen to the same extent in our neighborhoods. North side residents, incidentally, aren’t overjoyed about sending their kids on long bus rides down to the South and Southwest programs, she said in last week’s meeting.)

What happens if we continue with the status quo? Where, in my neighborhood, we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to excellent school programs? Isn’t it criminal to continue to ignore the blatant economic and racial disparities, and instead worry about whether we’ll get into Barton, Burroughs, or Lake Harriet (the three schools, Turner said tonight, that parents in our neighborhood choose)? If we really believe in the vital importance of education to our kids’ futures, and to that of social and economic progress for our country as a whole, don’t we need to look at the big picture, and what our roles in it might be?

It’s not just a question of whether, in this generation, we can actually significantly raise high school graduation rates and college graduation rates. I’m with Obama 100 percent in believing that the future of all of us depends on it.

Pointing to how quickly parents have turned schools that once were shunned into sought-after destinations — Kenwood, Whittier, and Washburn — Turner said, “You don’t know the power that you possess.”

But it was easy to see, tonight, amid the sturm und drang, what she means, and what we’ve seen through the school tour process, too. We really do have the power to create excellence, and to extend that opportunity more broadly and equitably.

I hope it’s a stage we’ll get to soon.

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