Equity for all or only kids?

La Conner schools has a new superintendent come July 1: Will Nelson, now director of equity and student success at Arlington’s public schools.

For Nelson, and all educators, providing an equitable education is a commitment to fairness, so that every student has the opportunity to obtain a quality education.

Since some children navigate a variety of obstacles just to arrive at school while others are fortunate to enter classrooms holding silver spoons, there is a wide gap educators must bridge to get all students to a high level of learning.

The Ohio School Boards Association believes:

“Equity in education requires putting systems in place to ensure that every child has an equal chance for success. That requires understanding the unique challenges and barriers faced by individual students or by populations of students and providing additional supports to help them overcome those barriers. While this in itself may not ensure equal outcomes, we all should strive to ensure that every child has equal opportunity for success.”

It notes the “difference between equity and equality. While equality means treating every student the same, equity means making sure every student has the support they need to be successful.”

Golfers understand this. The sport has a system for assigning handicaps so that those with different abilities start a round on a golf course with the chance of earning the same score.

Betters on a horse race know that some jockeys are weighted down so all have the same weight when the race starts.

Golf and horse racing are not equal or fair to those without handicaps or to those carrying weights. But agreed upon systems of equity make these sports equal to all players by supporting some to make the playing field level for all.

Our school systems goals are explicit: to get all over the finish line by providing some students additional help. In the old days this was called throwing more money at the problem. It is a good thing for the whole community.

Yet once our children become adults, the community – the larger society – abandons the vision of equity for the narrow measure of economic success. One great unequal playing field is in wages and the advantages employers have over their employees. Another great unequal area is housing, both rental and purchasing. In Skagit County the rental vacancy rate is close to zero: demand exceeds supply. For homebuyers, the median home value is $485,550 countywide, meaning half the homes are priced above $485,550.

Equity for homeowners has a different, more narrow meaning: financial value.

Home ownership is the single largest source of wealth for many. The equity in a person’s home is their source for getting cash if they take a loan. For many, it is both all they have and not very much, but it is their American Dream made real.

That is not the case for many new residents moving into greater La Conner and downsizing into retirement homes or buying second or summer housing.

As adults, buying and selling almost anything is a personal decision. The few regulations and laws that exist pale in comparison to the complex structure of a school system. For students, the adults are all in to provide the support needed and cede to the school board and superintendent’s rule making authority for the good of individual students, the school body, the school system and the larger community.

That guidance and yes, compassion, are absent for adults seeking housing. There could be strong systems, as with school districts, if residents advocated for themselves and threw themselves into planning and developing policies and rules for a set quantity of rental units and homes for purchase.

In the absence of citizen participation matchng parent involvement in their children’s education, housing availability and pricing will be shaped by developers. It is a system that is not equitable or equal, but it is a system. Residents can ignore the dynamics, accept them or work to change them.

But only one of those choices offer the possibility of equity and equality.