The recent story about Amherst Regional Public Schools contracting prison labor to repair auditorium seats is an illustration of why we need more diverse voices on the Amherst School Committee. When Spencer Cliche, the Amherst Regional High School student who broke the story, first heard that the school district was contracting prison labor, he was surprised: “I didn’t know as much about the issue — except I sort of did know about (how) prison labor is the new Jim Crow… It just seemed sketchy to me, kind of an odd choice for the school” (Gazette, June 5).
Contrast this with the reaction of the Amherst Regional School Committee members when they first heard about this project. When the ARPS finance director and superintendent described the project to committee members at the Jan. 29 meeting, members seemingly had no reaction to this idea. Not one of them questioned the appropriateness of a public school district contracting with prison labor. There were no questions about the prison labor program itself, whether the prisoners working on this project would be fairly compensated, or whether other vendors were considered. Few questions were raised at all. The topic was so non-controversial that discussion about it lasted only three minutes.
We need School Committee members who are as “woke” as the high school student who broke the story. We need School Committee members who are aware enough of the social-justice landscape that it would occur to them that using prison labor is, at best, a complicated issue, and at worse “the new Jim Crow.” We need School Committee members willing to question both the status quo and new initiatives. The ARPS mission is “the academic achievement of every student learning in a system dedicated to social justice and multiculturalism.”
We need School Committee members who reflect and embody this mission. On Nov. 5, Amherst will hold its first School Committee election since the new town charter. This means that all five seats on the Amherst School Committee will be up for election at the same time. We urge people to run who are people of color, renters, hourly workers, social justice activists and people willing to speak truth to power. Nomination papers are available now at the town clerk’s office and are due back on Sept. 17. We volunteer to be the first to sign your nomination papers. Our town is too diverse for us to elect a School Committee that is so unrepresentative of our community. Our children deserve better.
Jennifer Page and Amilcar Shabazz
Amherst