Last week, my daughter's preschool held a panel discussion for parents interested in sending their children to public school in San Francisco. Public education is a particularly hot topic in San Francisco because we don't have neighborhood schools, we have a lottery system. You choose seven schools (from all across the city) and hope that you get placed in one of your choices.
I was particularly interested in attending this panel because the participants were made up of former preschool parents who had their kids in public kindergartens. The panel leader was Lily Kim Murphy, an Asian woman.
The panel went off without a hitch with parents sharing incredibly personal stories and helpful information. My take-away was that diversity really needs to be a positive personal/family value for parents to consider public schools here. We are an incredibly diverse city and our public schools reflect this.
By the time the Q & A session started, I had been listening for two+ hours and my brain was full-up. I choose that moment to leave and collect my children from the on-site babysitter.
I wish I had stayed.
Apparently one of the parents at the school made a comment that I can't stop thinking about. This parent had been touring schools and had a problem with every school she looked at being "mostly Asian" (or "overwhelmingly Asian" or having "too many Asians"...however it was that she put it). Granted, I wasn't there so what I know of the tone and substance of the comment was related to me by two friends that did stay.
Could she have just been making a general observation? From what I've been told, no she wasn't.
Please read the rest of my post at Kimchi Mamas.
