Transcript for the Piece Audio version of SF school split

To Chinese immigrants, San Francisco is known as Gold Mountain. It?s a reference to the the gold rush of the l800s when Chinese workers flocked to the west coast to work the mines and build the railroads. Migrants from China and Asia are still lured to Gold Mountain. In the last 2 decades, Asians have become the largest ethnic group in San Francisco - over 30% of the city's population. But that population boom hasn't come withtout tension. As part of our series on changing California demographics, Holly Kernan of New California Media reports that when some Asian Americans felt their children were denied a place at the city's best public schools, it sparked the community's political activism.

The historic heart of San Francisco?s Chinese community is still the hilly streets of Chinatown, but these days there?s also another younger heart in the western Sunset neighborhood, centered here on Irving Street

EST IVRVING STREET AMB AND FADE UNDER TO HOLD

Mid-day shoppers pack this produce market, picking through wrinkly green chayote and bunches of ong-choi. Everywhere you look down this crowded corridor, signs are in Chinese and English. Cars are double parked and office windows are filled with posters of local Aisan American candidates running in the November election. This historically Irish neighborhood is now over 50% Asian, with many of the new residents arriving from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong over the past decade.

DL 1: That?s why as you walk down Irving street which was sleepy merchant corridor 30 years ago, you see its very bustling.

David Lee is the director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committe, which monitors demographic and political trends. He says the new immigrants have infused San Francisco with energy, enterprise and commerce:

DL 2: ?As the rest of the city is struggling with the bust of the dot com economy, Irving street is thriving...?

One of the reasons the newcomers settled in the residential Sunset neighborhood,
(CROSSFADE IRVING AM WITH LINCOLN AMB HERE and creep up Lincoln)
according to Lee, was reasonably priced housing and good neighborhood schools.... like Abraham Lincoln High.

AMB LINCOLN HIGH (BELL RINGS)

Students stream out of summer classes. One boistrous boy even sings along with the bell that signals the end of the school day. Three stories high, Lincoln was built in 1940, but it wasn?t until the late 1990?s that it became one of the top academic perfomers in the district. Many of the neighborhood parents, like Julie Wang, credit the school?s success to Asian parents involvement in their children?s education:

Wang 1: ?they will work two jobs, they work long hours, they will find tutors, send kids to all kinds extracurricular, they will pay for them...education in our culture is the number one prioirity..so it?s something that cannot be compromised?

But some Asian American parents feel their children?s education is in fact being compromised by district policy. (FADE LINCLON AMB OUT) In San Francisco, students are not automatically assigned to their neighborhood schools, but can apply to attend any public school in the city. This is part of the District?s strategy to comply with a twenty year old court order to integrate the schools. But, as a result of a lawsuit filed in the 1990?s by Chinese parents, San Francisco Unified is also under court order not to use race as a factor in assigning students to schools. District spokeswoman Jackie Wright:

Wright 1: ?So, we have to provide diversity but not use race as an indicator and that?s what the diversity index achieves.?

The diversity index is the controversial new formula introduced earlier this year. It uses half a dozen different criteria to assign the nearly 60,000 students to a school, in an attempt to maintain integrated student bodies.

But when the system was first implemented earlier this Spring, a computer glitch left hundreds of students shut out of their preferred schools, assigned to no school or with siblings sent to different schools . Many of the students affected by the glitch were Asian American, reinforcing that community?s concern that the pursuit of public school diversity often compromised THEIR kids' education.

AMB CHINESE LANGUAGE RADIO (est Chinese and fade under track)

It was local Chinese language talk shows, like this one on Sing Tao radio, where outraged parents first complained publicly about their frustration with the school district. The bottom line for many of the Chinese parents was they wanted their kids in their good neighborhood schools, most of which are located on the west side of the city. One local politician representing the Sunset suggested splitting the school district in half--east and west--in order to bolster local control. That idea, by San Francisco supervisor Leland Yee, got the rest of the city?s attention.

AMB BOARD OF SUPES (hold under AX and TRAX)

At the May Board of Supervisors hearing on the issue, emotions were high.

ET 1: ?I work for 10 hours, six days and if I can not get into Lincoln I?d rather kill myself?

Asian American parents, like Elaine Trang, packed the room, testifying about their problems with school assignments. Trang says she moved from the eastern Mission district to the Sunset to be near safe schools and spent six weeks this year trying to get her 13-year-old daughter into her neighborhood school, Lincoln High.

ET 2?I?ve got nowhere to go, I don?t have money to pay for private school.?

Despite the drama at the hearing, the district is not in any real danger of being split.
Critics of the idea say it would divide San Francisco into a district of haves and have nots and would increase racial segregation, with mostly black and latino kids on the east and whites and asians on the west. Most of the city?s political establishment came down against a split, including some prominent Chinese Americans. But the hearing revealed a deep anger with the school district and has galvanized Asian American parents. Since that meeting, most of the initial problems with school assignments have been resolved, including Elaine Trang?s--her daughter will go to Lincoln this fall.

AMB LINCOLN HIGH CLASSROOM (laughing girl) and hold under AX and TRAX

The hallways at Lincoln High will be a little more crowded next year as the school increases enrollment in order to accomodate both the diversity index and neighborhood requests. Principal Ronald Pang says he understands parents concerns about keeping their kids in their local school:

Pang: ?But then I think with a diverse population it teaches students that there are differences and in the work world they need to learn to work with diversity.?

Pang points out that even with a neighborhood placement system, Lincoln still wouldn?t have space for everyone. And District spokewoman Jackie Wright says that ironically this year more students will be going the the school of their choice than last year:

Wright 2: ?But the improvement is not something we?re resting on...we?re not ignoring the cries of the parents. We?re not.?

And some Asian American parents want to make sure they won?t be ignored in the future.

AMB VOTER PETITION DRIVE ?excuse me, are you a voter??

The newly formed Citizens for School Reform, which grew out of this year?s problems with the school system, is out collecting signatures for a ballot measure that would allow for neighborhood election of school board representatives. Currently the school board is elected in a citywide contest. Spokeswoman Julie Wang says the issue for the parents is local accountability:

Wang 2: ? Its not the Chinese Americans or any parents on the west side that they dont welcome parents from the other side. We welcome them. But, we believe everything local makes better sense. Because if everyone takes care of their own backyard, the whole city will be in good shape?.

Trend-watcher David Lee says he hasn?t seen this level of political activism in his ten years following electoral patterns in the Asian community:

Lee: ?You know Many observers have said that the Chinese community is a sleeping giant and for the last 50 years that?s been true, because the Chinese community has not mobilized, has not come out nearly in the kind of numbers politically that it has in the city. Perhaps this issue of their children?s education is an issue that can awake the sleeping giant.?

Or as a recent editorial in a Chinese language daily put it, ?most of the time Chinese don't care about politics, but when their children's education is at stake 'they would rather die than surrender.'"

For NPR news, I?m Holly Kernan in San Francisco.

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