Keith Allison
LeBron James.
When LeBron James and his LeBron James Family Foundation recently opened the I Promise School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, he received a lot of praise for creating a public school rather than a charter, which would have siphoned students and funding out of the public system.
But few if any press outlets noticed that James may have done Akron Public Schools an even bigger favor—preventing the district from being taken over by the state.
Ohio is one of thirty-one states that allow state intervention and takeover of school districts or individual schools for academic or financial reasons. While there has been no formal warning to Akron public schools of a takeover, according to the state report card, they are in dangerous territory.
A new school like the one James started could result in smaller classes across district elementary schools and possibly improve report card ratings in a district struggling to raise its state scores. That’s important because increased scores for the district reduce the chances of the state intervening in Akron schools, and evidence of the effectiveness of school takeovers is mixed. Student achievement after a takeover oftentimes falls short of expectations.
Few if any press outlets noticed that James may have done Akron Public Schools an even bigger favor—preventing the district from being taken over by the state.
In New Jersey, for example, the legacy of state takeovers has become one of occupation rather than success. The state’s preferred strategy when it takes over a district is handing it over to charter management groups. In Camden and Newark, for instance, state legislation allowed for charter management organizations to open new schools or occupy current ones.
An unavoidable characteristic Camden and Newark schools have in common is that they are predominately attended by black and Latinx students. During the first full school year both districts were under state control, Camden City schools black and Latinx population was 97 percent. In Newark, it was 90 percent.
This and similar cases prompted Rutgers University professor Domingo Morel to suggest that the racial composition of school districts, and even the racial composition of the municipal leadership, has more to do with whether schools and districts will be subject to state takeover than do its academics or finances.
According to Morel, predominantly black school districts are more likely to be taken over, and those takeovers are more likely to fully remove the elected school board. Morel also finds that cities with a greater share of black city council members are more likely to face takeovers, with state leaders arguing they must wrest control of chaotic local politics. He writes:
“Unlike previous groups, which had the opportunity to govern their cities for decades and fully participate in patronage practices, black communities and their political leaders were castigated for engaging in political practices as old as American politics.”
Ohio has two school districts currently under state control (Youngstown and Lorain) and five districts (East Cleveland, Maple Heights, Warrensville Heights, Dayton and Trotwood-Madison) at risk of state takeover. Of the two districts under current state control and the five facing possible state intervention, six of them educate a majority of black children. All five school districts facing state intervention are heavily populated by black children. Five of the seven district locations have a majority black city council, and five of the seven school district locations have a black mayor. It seems that, in the case of Ohio, Morel isn’t off base.
But we can’t rely on the philanthropy of the uber-wealthy, even those with the best of intentions, to help communities maintain governance of their own schools.
State intervention is no guarantee of academic improvement. What does happen in the midst of a state takeover is the theft of power and resources out of the hands of municipalities where black people are in leadership. What has happened in New Jersey and what is happening in Ohio should make us question how state governments determine which districts and schools get taken over.
In Ohio, Democratic legislators worked to put in place a moratorium on putting any new districts under state control. Unfortunately, there is no moratorium in place during this legislative review.
The I Promise School is a traditional public school, part of the Akron City School District. That is important because the financial resources contributed to the I Promise School, via the Lebron James Foundation and its partners, will be in local control, and the school may go a long way to help with the district’s mission to educate every child.
But we can’t rely on the philanthropy of the uber-wealthy, even those with the best of intentions, to help communities maintain governance of their own schools.
Instead, this will require voters to consider why takeovers happen, what role race plays, and how they can do more harm than good. It’ll require interrogation of the notion that black people are incapable of city and school governance.