I woke up last night at 2:00 am. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I got on my laptop and googled and re-googled Insideschools reading the reviews of District 13 middle schools that my daughter is eligible to attend. I thought about the school I toured yesterday —the school that appalled the mothers from Brooklyn Heights. That middle school was one of the top three District 13 choices for almost every 5th grade parent I asked at our elementary school last year.
I input my zip code on a website to find out what other middle schools are nearby. Three schools came up. One was a selective school in District 15 ten blocks from our home and open only to students from District 15. The well organized photo and information filled website had a graph. It showed which selective high schools had accepted how many of that middle school’s 8th grade graduates the previous year. The two District 13 middle schools listed my zip code did not even have links their own websites, not even the boring government-issued default New York City Department of Education template.
I googled “District 13”. I googled “District 15”.
I wondered why all the selective schools in District 13 are also open to students from districts 14, 15, 16, and 17 but all the selective schools in District 15 are only open to District 15 students.
I googled “separate but equal”. I googled “segregation”.
I was still awake at 5:00 am.