Worcester City Councilor Speaks Out On Education Equity

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester City Councilor Sarai Rivera has been an outspoken advocate for education equity and released a statement on Tuesday defending herself and explaining her advocacy. Rivera has been critical of district in the past, including pushing back on proposals to add police officers to Claremont Academy. Earlier in the month the Coalition for Education Equity, and several student groups called for Superintendent Maureen Binienda and school safety director Robert Pezzella's firing over racial inequities in the district.

"Rather than seeking solutions, some have questioned my motivation for making critical statements of the administration of the Worcester Public School over the past few weeks," Rivera's statement reads. She said frustration from all corners of the community including from parents and students led her to speak out. "More recently, legal actions by former Worcester Public School employees challenged my conscience to speak out rather than continuing to sit waiting," she said, "Ultimately I joined the public call because it felt all other possible routes to bringing about dialogue and change had failed."

The Coalition for Education Equity and other critics of the school district argue that students of color face a heavier rate of discipline, unequal to their white peers. School data from last year showed that Latino students were given home suspensions twice as much as white students were and recent data released by the district shows there is still a significant gap, even with overall suspensions dropping. Latino students make up more than 40 percent of the district’s more than 25,000 students.

Te Coalition for Education Equity said in a statement, "Worcester’s demographics and performance indicators tell a compelling story of a school district that leaves a majority of its students – students of color – in the dust of their counterparts: failing to meet their Legal Equal Educational Opportunities."

Earlier this month, Worcester Public School students rallied in front of City Hall to call for Binienda's contract not to be renewed. The Youth Civics Union, the HOPE Coalition, the Worcester Youth Movement and the Worcester Youth Cooperative were the student groups who held the rally and press conference.

Rivera said she stand by Mayor Joseph Petty's call to action, made earlier this month. Petty said that while he believes students are well served by teachers and administrators, "we can do better."

“Disparities in the application of discipline are always unacceptable; moreover suspension must be a last resort.” Petty said. He called for the schools to hire a Diversity and Equal Opportunity Officer and for the Mayor’s Commission on Latino Education and Advancement, to f submit a report no later than August 15, 2019, among other things.

"From day one, my message has been and will continue to be 'The Community has a Voice' and it is important for that voice to be heard and to be included at the decision-making table," Rivera said, "This public statement is an invitation for a call to action and healing, something that the community has been seeking for the last three years from this school administration."

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