Since we've talked so much about gentrification in San Francisco and the question of "what can we/the city government/inhabitants of SF do to curb the increase of rent and the buying out of small, local businesses to larger corporations?" is consistently pondered, I found this article interesting in its approach to become more community oriented.
"Currently, the 84 out-of-town students make up nearly 14 percent of enrollment across all art forms and nearly half of them are white. Several supportive speakers said many San Francisco students are talented, but don’t have classical training or need help with the audition process."
There's a quote from one of the teachers in the school that is downright classist and racist in its approach to defining what art "is" and his fears for the future of SOTA if it stops taking out-of-town students who are "predominantly white and Asian, with a lower percentage of English learners and low-income students than the district.":
“SOTA is a school for classical arts, not cartooning, graffiti art and hip-hop dance,” said teacher Donald Fontowitz in an e-mail to the school board and The Chronicle, urging the district to beef up classical art instruction in elementary and middle schools to increase city applicants.
I think that education is something so critical that opportunities should not be denied to those from out of the area. At the same time, those out of the area students probably have more opportunities to access other schools, while the San Francisco students may only be able to enroll in this local school. It's a tough question, and while I think favoring local students is a proper move, outright banning other students limits more opportunities than it creates.
ReplyDeleteThere should be more public art schools in general. There should especially be more schools accepting and cultivating the "cartooning, graffiti art and hip-hop dance" that is often looked down upon.
ReplyDeleteThis is a tough question which should have more solutions than simply banning non-locals or accepting them all. This made me think of the whole UC fiasco regarding out-of-state students and how the system was considering prioritizing them instead of CA residents. At fist I did not agree with such a policy; however, reading this piece on a smaller scale case has made me reconsider my opinion. Is it right to deny opportunities to others simply because they do not live geographically near?
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