The Charro Days Parade Debacle; Exposing a Bigger Problem in the Community
By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon
This past Friday, the Beacon published an article detailing a brouhaha that was brewing around this year's annual Charro Days celebration. According to stories being circulated on local social media pages, the Brownsville Independent School District informed the local charter schools they would not be allowed to participate in this year's Children's Parade. Other posts detailed how other private schools were still allowed to participate, but if they wanted to appear in a parade, the charter schools would have to march in Friday's Illuminated Night Parade or Saturday's Grand International Parade.
The story was confirmed the following day, as the Brownsville Blogosphere and The Brownsville Herald printed stories confirming our story; and press releases put out by the district, Jubilee Academy, and Charro Days, Inc. did the same.
Reaction was swift, and the community was clearly divided on the issue. There were those who thought it was a good idea and the BISD Children's Parade should only feature district schools, while another large group in the community clearly believed this to be an unfair tactic to punish charter schools, since the BISD and charter schools are trying to increase their enrollment from the same pool of school-aged children.
The powers-that-be at Charro Days, Inc. were quick to distance themselves from the district's decision. Charro Days Inc. made it clear on a message posted on their Facebook page on Friday charter schools were free to submit paperwork to appear in Friday or Saturday's parade, and all other questions about Thursday's parade were to be directed to the BISD main office.
In the article originally published by the Beacon, we stood by the district's decision to showcase students from the district as well as their choice to keep charter schools from participating. There are 57 schools in the district, and because of the amount of schools not everyone gets to participate in Thursday's parade. A current BISD employee supported the decision when mentioning this on a phone call over the weekend — during the five years his daughter attended elementary school, she was only able to participate in one Charro Days Children's Parade.
The Beacon still supports the decision. We believe Thursday's parade should be restructured to allow the participation of every district school in some way, shape, or form. Perhaps each school can participate in some sort of rotating role. Maybe one year a school can march and dance, the following year that same school can create a parade float, and the year after that, they can have a small dance team appear with other schools of their cluster. I don't know if that's a possibility, and I'm sure there are smarter people out there who may be able to find a way for every school to participate.
Many argue charter schools are being excluded from all Charro Days festivities. This is not true. The facts are these — charter schools are welcome to participate in Friday's parade and Saturday's parade. Also, Friday's Illuminated Night Parade is being sponsored by IDEA Public Schools.
The Sombrero Festival has stepped up and offered charter schools an alternative to appearing in Thursday's parade. They have said they will allow charter schools to perform in Washington Park and admission to the park would be free from 1PM - 5PM so those wishing to see the charter schools perform can do so without having to pay the entrance fee to Sombrero Fest.
The Charro Days debacle has brought an ugly issue bubbling to the surface — in the struggle to get warm bodies to fill the seats of Brownsville's public, private, Montessori, and charter schools, we have all declared war on one another.
I admit, I have clearly chosen my side. I am not an advocate for charter schools. They do not operate like traditional public schools. They inner workings and the mechanism that runs the charter school juggernaut is not transparent. Everything is done under a shroud of secrecy. But all of these things aside, the thing that bothers me the most is the attitude many employees and recruiters from charter schools have is somehow their schools are better than traditional public schools. I am not a fan of the contempt which many charter school employees have and display towards traditional public schools. While it isn't a problem to believe your school is better, you really shouldn't have to belittle and trash traditional schools to make your charter school look better — and that's exactly what a lot of charter schools do. They rest on the laurels of their exceptional graduation rate, their test scores are the best, and boast that all their graduates attend college.
Traditional schools would have the same numbers and graduation rates as charter schools if they were able to cherry-pick their students and deny admittance to students who perform poorly.
I'm not saying traditional schools are for everyone. If you want your child to attend a charter school, that isn't a problem. I do, however, believe if charter schools are gonig to be receiving public funds from the same pool traditional schools receive theirs, they should operate the same way as traditional public schools do. The way current charter schools are structured makes them run more like private corporations rather than public schools.
This war is getting ugly. Not only are the schools battling, now they've dragged a decade's-long community celebration into the fray.
Charro Days was originally created to boost the community's morale in the middle of the Great Depression. The celebration was also created to foster a sense of cooperation, mutual respect, and cultural awareness between Brownsville and Matamoros, between Texas and Tamaulipas, and between the United States and Mexico. The celebration was created to bring people together. Now, it seems the celebration is set to tear the community apart.
People in the community are up in arms because of all the drama. Many have taken to social media to spew hateful vitriol about Charro Days, trashing the entire event. Some have said they're going to boycott the entire celebration and spend their time and money at the Livestock Show in Mercedes.
Someone needs to step in to try and heal the community. Perhaps a change to Charro Days is in order. Maybe compromise is the order of the day. Perhaps the celebration can be extended an additional day. Maybe instead of dismissing the students early on Thursday, we can dismiss the students early on Wednesday and have two children's parades. The district and charter schools can have two early afternoon parades back to back and rotate who goes first every other year.
There needs to be a better way to work together. There needs to be a better way for both sides to put the hateful, petty animus, and insults, and disrespect aside and realize it really does take a village to raise a child.
The more we fight and the more we name-call the more we end up hurting the voiceless who can't stand up for themselves — the ones who don't care about all the bickering and the ill will — the ones who just want to dress up in their costumes and enjoy a few days of dancing and fun.
As idealistic and Capra-esque this may sound, this really all should be for, and about, the children.
It's a pity we've all seem to have forgotten that.
This past Friday, the Beacon published an article detailing a brouhaha that was brewing around this year's annual Charro Days celebration. According to stories being circulated on local social media pages, the Brownsville Independent School District informed the local charter schools they would not be allowed to participate in this year's Children's Parade. Other posts detailed how other private schools were still allowed to participate, but if they wanted to appear in a parade, the charter schools would have to march in Friday's Illuminated Night Parade or Saturday's Grand International Parade.
The story was confirmed the following day, as the Brownsville Blogosphere and The Brownsville Herald printed stories confirming our story; and press releases put out by the district, Jubilee Academy, and Charro Days, Inc. did the same.
Reaction was swift, and the community was clearly divided on the issue. There were those who thought it was a good idea and the BISD Children's Parade should only feature district schools, while another large group in the community clearly believed this to be an unfair tactic to punish charter schools, since the BISD and charter schools are trying to increase their enrollment from the same pool of school-aged children.
The powers-that-be at Charro Days, Inc. were quick to distance themselves from the district's decision. Charro Days Inc. made it clear on a message posted on their Facebook page on Friday charter schools were free to submit paperwork to appear in Friday or Saturday's parade, and all other questions about Thursday's parade were to be directed to the BISD main office.
In the article originally published by the Beacon, we stood by the district's decision to showcase students from the district as well as their choice to keep charter schools from participating. There are 57 schools in the district, and because of the amount of schools not everyone gets to participate in Thursday's parade. A current BISD employee supported the decision when mentioning this on a phone call over the weekend — during the five years his daughter attended elementary school, she was only able to participate in one Charro Days Children's Parade.
The Beacon still supports the decision. We believe Thursday's parade should be restructured to allow the participation of every district school in some way, shape, or form. Perhaps each school can participate in some sort of rotating role. Maybe one year a school can march and dance, the following year that same school can create a parade float, and the year after that, they can have a small dance team appear with other schools of their cluster. I don't know if that's a possibility, and I'm sure there are smarter people out there who may be able to find a way for every school to participate.
Many argue charter schools are being excluded from all Charro Days festivities. This is not true. The facts are these — charter schools are welcome to participate in Friday's parade and Saturday's parade. Also, Friday's Illuminated Night Parade is being sponsored by IDEA Public Schools.
The Sombrero Festival has stepped up and offered charter schools an alternative to appearing in Thursday's parade. They have said they will allow charter schools to perform in Washington Park and admission to the park would be free from 1PM - 5PM so those wishing to see the charter schools perform can do so without having to pay the entrance fee to Sombrero Fest.
The Charro Days debacle has brought an ugly issue bubbling to the surface — in the struggle to get warm bodies to fill the seats of Brownsville's public, private, Montessori, and charter schools, we have all declared war on one another.
I admit, I have clearly chosen my side. I am not an advocate for charter schools. They do not operate like traditional public schools. They inner workings and the mechanism that runs the charter school juggernaut is not transparent. Everything is done under a shroud of secrecy. But all of these things aside, the thing that bothers me the most is the attitude many employees and recruiters from charter schools have is somehow their schools are better than traditional public schools. I am not a fan of the contempt which many charter school employees have and display towards traditional public schools. While it isn't a problem to believe your school is better, you really shouldn't have to belittle and trash traditional schools to make your charter school look better — and that's exactly what a lot of charter schools do. They rest on the laurels of their exceptional graduation rate, their test scores are the best, and boast that all their graduates attend college.
Traditional schools would have the same numbers and graduation rates as charter schools if they were able to cherry-pick their students and deny admittance to students who perform poorly.
I'm not saying traditional schools are for everyone. If you want your child to attend a charter school, that isn't a problem. I do, however, believe if charter schools are gonig to be receiving public funds from the same pool traditional schools receive theirs, they should operate the same way as traditional public schools do. The way current charter schools are structured makes them run more like private corporations rather than public schools.
This war is getting ugly. Not only are the schools battling, now they've dragged a decade's-long community celebration into the fray.
Charro Days was originally created to boost the community's morale in the middle of the Great Depression. The celebration was also created to foster a sense of cooperation, mutual respect, and cultural awareness between Brownsville and Matamoros, between Texas and Tamaulipas, and between the United States and Mexico. The celebration was created to bring people together. Now, it seems the celebration is set to tear the community apart.
People in the community are up in arms because of all the drama. Many have taken to social media to spew hateful vitriol about Charro Days, trashing the entire event. Some have said they're going to boycott the entire celebration and spend their time and money at the Livestock Show in Mercedes.
Someone needs to step in to try and heal the community. Perhaps a change to Charro Days is in order. Maybe compromise is the order of the day. Perhaps the celebration can be extended an additional day. Maybe instead of dismissing the students early on Thursday, we can dismiss the students early on Wednesday and have two children's parades. The district and charter schools can have two early afternoon parades back to back and rotate who goes first every other year.
There needs to be a better way to work together. There needs to be a better way for both sides to put the hateful, petty animus, and insults, and disrespect aside and realize it really does take a village to raise a child.
The more we fight and the more we name-call the more we end up hurting the voiceless who can't stand up for themselves — the ones who don't care about all the bickering and the ill will — the ones who just want to dress up in their costumes and enjoy a few days of dancing and fun.
As idealistic and Capra-esque this may sound, this really all should be for, and about, the children.
It's a pity we've all seem to have forgotten that.
It is a little surprising that the charter schools have not mentioned the desire to also participate in the Monday night BISD Fiesta Folklorica at Sam Stadium.
ReplyDeleteParticipating in Children's parade is not all fun for the small children. The parade requires for the children to wait their turn at the start of the parade for an extensive period of time. At times the wait can be in cold weather and in other times the wait can be under a scorching heat with no cover from the sun for the children. After such an unpleasant waiting period, the children not only have to dance in the parade but also have to walk a great distance on Elizabeth St.
BISD would love to have all their schools participate in the Children's Parade. However, the district is aware of the unpleasant circumstances and therefore for years have decided to allow a portion of their schools to participate in the parade on a rotating bases.
The Parade has become a business to make money and our children have been exploited for years in all ways it's time to give back to the community and absolutely everything should be free for every man,woman,child no more taking the money from the poor !
Delete