After three years of the Comprehensive District Design (CDD) being in effect, the detriment it has caused Minneapolis Public School’s students has become abundantly clear. The CDD was introduced to redraw the Minneapolis public school district lines to follow public transportation routes from neighborhoods in the district, and ultimately save money on transportation. After two years being in effect, we have a better understanding of how it will affect the future of South High, and the MPS school district in general.
Looking at the district lines, you can see South’s district is now snapping turtle shaped, which is an indicator of gerrymandering. It draws apartment blocks into South’s district and single homes into the Roosevelt district. Essentially, the new lines reinforce the effects of poverty. Additionally, South’s current freshman class is half the size it normally is, and it’s expected to continue decreasing every year. Teacher Corbin Doty commented on this saying, “The poverty concentration has become so much higher. We need more resources but will receive less because our population is shrinking.”
Doty has been working at South High since 2014, teaching photography, photoshop and graphic design up until this year. He’s a prime example of the CDD’s impact on staff positions. The CDD moved the classes Doty originally taught to North High School’s new tech center, decreasing the art funding at South. The district planned on transferring him to North High, but Doty fought to stay at his position at South. His wish was eventually granted, but on the condition that he instead teach a comic arts class and art design class, with little to no resources available.
“I first heard about the CDD in 2019, and it was initially presented as a good, efficient idea. But the devil is always in the details and once the details were revealed it was very clear to me that it wasn’t going to work”, said Doty.
Another effect we’re starting to notice is the decline of South athletics. Our sports teams are facing the consequences of the steadily decreasing underclassman population, and it showed this fall season. The women’s soccer team had a total of 20 girls try out this year, which is nowhere near enough to fill out a JV and Varsity team. With seniors making up the majority of the women’s team, the future of the team is concerning. If they continue struggling to recruit underclassmen, our athletics programs will only shrink, discouraging students’ spirits, and setting South athletics back.
While the redistricting was promised to bring racial equity, more efficient transportation, and overall more positives to our district, the flaws are seeming to outweigh the benefits. The district board admitted to knowing that redrawing district lines will diminish the enrollment by a third, but they phrased it as just a “growing pain” we’ll have to go through. While trying to save money on transportation, our district is now in a bigger financial catastrophe than we were before. Families aren’t happy with the redistricting in general, but South is becoming less appealing to students in specific because a lot of our art and music programs have been defunded, and the significant decrease in our population. Doty added: “Families that were moved to South’s district in the redistricting have already started to move their kids to private schools, furthering [South’s] defunding.”
The most significant effect the CDD is having, and will continue to have on our district is racial segregation. The district framed the redistricting as a plan to ensure that MPS schools are racially diverse, but it’s becoming clear that their motive was the financial prospect of it, and trying to save money on bussing. In doing this, the district is defunding schools that were historically racially diverse.
South, for example, has long been known as a diverse racial melting pot of students, but due to redistricting, that will cease to be the case in years to come. The CDD is forcing lower income families into South’s district, decreasing funding because of our population decrease, and disproportionately affecting the students and families of color that make up South’s district. Simply put, the Comprehensive District Design is yet another instance of our education systems contributing to systemic racism.
