I speak in opposition to closing eight Austin elementary schools proposed by the AISD Facilities Task

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Force. I am a proud Pease parent of a 5 grade son and 6 grade daughter. Seven years ago, we
transferred our children to Pease because our neighborhood school in East Austin was noted as
academically acceptable, but it was not. While not representative of all East Austin schools, kindergarten
kids were learning colors and letter recognition in January. First grade kids could not read in the middle
of the school year. We were unwilling to gamble with our children’s education while teachers,
administrators, and politicians figured it out.

As you likely know, Pease Elementary is historic. At 135 years old, it is the oldest, continually running
public school in Texas. Rated exemplary by the TEA, Pease has high parent involvement, small classes,
treats students like she or he is capable of greatness, and has wonderful teachers. However, the
Facilities Task Force has threatened to close Pease and other high performing schools.

Pease’s historic nature surpasses a founding date and diverse numbers - 49% Latina/o, 27% white; 21%
African American and 2% Asian (2009-2010, TEA data). Our children come from twenty-seven zip codes
in Austin. Simply, Pease has achieved more racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity than any other
elementary school in Austin. Pease’s diversity is intentional and it reflects an unwavering commitment
amidst a city largely segregated by race, income, and access to a quality education.

When Pease opened in 1876, I would have been a slave only thirteen years before. It is easy to forget
this difficult part of history and the Jim Crow laws in Austin that served to keep people of color in our
place. During World War I, 80% of African Americans lived in East Austin. Most African Americans left
their homes early in the morning, travelling west to clean the homes of white people, care for their
children, fix machines, and collect garbage. While this is honest work, it was all we were expected to be.
With surges of migration in the 1920s, a Mexican American color line also emerged in Austin pushing
them to the adjacent parts of East Austin.

In 1970, there were 18 schools in East Austin with more than 90% African American students and 60% of
Mexican American students. In 1986, there were more white and black children sitting next to one
another in school. Since the 1990s, with the introduction of “freedom of choice” and neighborhood
schools, we have become more segregated than in 1970. Throughout this time, Pease has remained
diverse with African American, Latina/o/Hispanic, bi-ethnic, and white children from working and middle
class families for many years with children of color being the majority for thirty years.

Segregated schools for children of color (e.g. Blackshear, Olive Street, Comal Street, and East Avenue)
were separate, but hardly equal. Although segregated services and institutions provided social glue and
uplifted communities, it did not (and does not) compensate for the economically exploitive system that
Austin’s Jim Crow customs and laws created for almost a century. It is this exploitative system that is the
focus of our concern and what makes Pease truly historical.

Austin's segregation persists - in order to be assured you can attend a high quality, public school you
have to live in certain zip codes or go through a highly selective magnet school application process. This
is simply wrong.

We preach to children that it is important to get an education for their future. We scold certain ethnic
communities for “not valuing education” and “making excuses.” Pease (and these other school’s) children
attend school, do their homework, and score well on TAKS. Parents are involved regardless of whether
we work one or two jobs (day or night), we are a single parent, whether we never went to college,
whether English is not our first language, or we are poor. It is not acceptable to shift thousands of
Latino/a and African American children from exemplary schools to less academically rigorous ones to
save money nor to close down central aspects of our communities when we have followed the rules AISD
set.

There are alternative ways to fill the budget deficit other than making permanent decisions such as
closing schools. It does not appear the Task Force considered options posed to the public in surveys
earlier in the year. Leasing or selling unused space and better utilizing space as well as current
resources more efficiently should be the starting points rather than teaching and learning. Other options
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should include selling or leasing the AISD Central Office on West 6 Street and relocating to existing
space at Reagan High School or other schools in the district. This would allow administrators to be
hands-on and see what is happening in our schools. Another option is cutting central administrative
positions by 15 to 20% and their professional development in order to avoid laying-off high performing
teachers and staff who are immediately responsible for teaching children.

In Milliken v. Detroit (1974), dissenting Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall said, “Our nation, I fear,
will be ill-served by the Court’s refusal to remedy separate and unequal education, for unless our children
begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together.” For decades,
Pease teaches our children how to live with one another and serves as a daily example of Dr. Martin
Luther King’s beloved community. Through these lessons, I pray my children learn to be better than my
flawed generation and generations before by holding steadfast to values of respect, care, and concern for
ALL people.

Truly diverse, exemplary schools are models for the future of education in our country. Yet, diversity and
inclusion are ideals that we continue to struggle. Pease is not the problem. The insufficient progress by
AISD to offer high quality, accessible, diverse schools regardless of one’s zip code is THE problem.

Pease Elementary…historic, exemplary, and diverse.

Yvonne Ortiz-Prince
Resident of East Austin
Dean of Student Affairs
Huston-Tillotson University
yortizprince8@gmail.com
512.779.5259