Pondering the closure and attainable eventual sale of 20 Seattle colleges has made me take into consideration our colleges as public belongings in each the capitalist and community-based use of that phrase.
How would folks reply if our library system stated, “Because it’s extra environment friendly, we’re going to shut down 4 or 5 libraries in every space and consolidate them into greater ‘well-resourced’ libraries as an alternative.”
Equally, what if the parks division introduced: “So as to meet working prices of the parks division, we’re going to shut down our smaller parks, and simply encourage folks to journey to and congregate in our bigger parks.”
Our neighborhood colleges, like our libraries and our parks, have intrinsic worth to our communities past what’s most “environment friendly.” They’ve many unquantifiable, non-commodity advantages together with: youngsters feeling that they’re identified and so they belong, which is extra doubtless in a small surroundings; having the ability to stroll to and from college, as I do with my baby, getting recent air and train; and the great thing about among the older buildings, akin to my baby’s Graham Hill Elementary, which really feel good as locations to be and to be taught.
Jocelyn Alt, Seattle
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