North Cook News

It would be discriminatory and wrong for Evanston/Skokie School District 65 to prioritize in-person learning for students based on race, according to the founder of nonprofit research institute Wirepoints.

“Not all black and brown kids are disadvantaged and not all white kids are advantaged,” said Mark Glennon, also the executive editor of the group that researches economy and government in Illinois.

Glennon was responding to a Fox News article that reported that District 65 planned to allow students of color first dibs on in-person classes once the system reopens.

Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon | YouTube

"There are second- and third-generation prosperous families of color in Wilmette, and there are some white kids who have grown up on the wrong side of the tracks who have real disadvantages,” Glennon told North Cook News.

Deputy Supt. Latarsha Green told the Evanston Roundtable that District 65 will give the following categories of students a priority: “Students receiving free or reduced lunch, black and brown students, students who received an [incomplete] or less than 50% on their report cards, emerging bilinguals, and students with IEPs (individualized education programs).”

The comment generated a swirl of media reports.

“That school district has long been at the extreme end on racial indoctrination, teaching its students that racism is everywhere and that all white people are implicitly biased,” Glennon said. “People are getting fed up with that because they are seeing that it only incites more racial division.”

But a week after saying black and brown students would be prioritized, Green retracted her statement, according to the Chicago Tribune, because the district reportedly received threatening communications.

“It’s a tragedy if threats to school officials resulted from this, and there is no excusing that, no matter what was said,” Glennon said. “However, the concerns expressed properly by Evanston residents were entirely predictable and reasonable if Ms. Green stated their policy accurately.”

In an attempt to correct Green, school board president Anya Tanyavutti said that race would not be a determining factor in who would be offered on-site classes first, but that the district will prioritize homeless students, learning-challenged students, children enrolled in the free or reduced lunch program or who face other difficulties. 

“Ms. Tanyavutti is either changing her school district's story or her deputy, Ms. Green, was badly misquoted by the Evanston Roundtable,” Glennon said. “The school’s new claim is that they merely want to prioritize disadvantaged students, who tend to be black or brown, which could be a reasonable policy. But the Roundtable's original story quoted Ms. Green clearly saying they would base live attendance on race.” 

Officials added that much of the homeless, disadvantaged and learning-challenged students are black and Hispanic school children.

“That's a reasonable policy as long as they aren't using it as a pretext for what is really discrimination the way Yale University is being charged with right now by the Justice Department,” Glennon said. “They claim the same thing in their admissions policy but the Justice Department says they're simply discriminating on the basis of race.”

The Department of Justice announced last week that Yale was violating federal civil rights law for reverse discrimination against white and Asian students.