Amid the firestorm of protest from parents over the Boston Public Schools’ planned changes to elementary school start times, Superintendent Tommy Chang invoked the concept of racial equity to justify the move.
But civil rights activists are not having it. In a letter sent to the news media last week, NAACP Boston Branch President Tanisha Sullivan and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Education Project Director Matt Cregor argue that the BPS plan, which would roll back start times for many elementary schools to 7:15 a.m., would actually undermine equity.
“Parents of color are disproportionately in lower-wage jobs, and are less likely to have the flexibility needed to build their schedules around a school day that ends at 1:15 or 1:55, let alone pay for any resulting need in afterschool care,” the letter reads.