The Daily - One Elite High School’s Struggle Over Admissions

Episode Date: June 24, 2022

A bitter debate about the criteria for enrolling students at Lowell, in California, has echoes of the soul-searching happening across the U.S. education system.Guest: Jay Caspian Kang, a writer for Times Opinion and The New York Times Magazine; and Jessica Cheung, a senior audio producer for The Daily. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. Background reading: The decision to replace Lowell High School’s admission process with a lottery system was a key factor at play in a recall election in February that ousted three members of San Francisco’s school board.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. You're just going to kind of put a number on me, and then that's going to determine my future. I don't think it's serving every student as well as it needs to. In recent months, we've seen a meaningful re-examination of this country's education system and the tests that often sit at the heart of admissions to the nation's top schools. We have these very elite public schools that kids test into in this city. In the wake of George Floyd's murder, hard questions have been asked about who these

admission systems benefit. And last year, even though the public school system is made up 70 percent of Black and Hispanic children, only 10 Black students got into Stuyvesant. And who they leave out. The numbers, by and large, have not changed in recent years at the competitive high schools, which remain highly racially segregated, or I guess to be specific, excluding Black and Latino students. And after decades of resistance. Well, the SAT has been a target of equity-minded reformers for a long time.

real changes are being made. The SAT, the ACT standardized tests are out at UC. Harvard announced it will not require ACT or SAT scores for admission for the next four years. And elite public high schools around the country that use so-called merit-based admission systems. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has been rated the number one public high school in America. It has shifted its standards after accusations they were exclusionary to some minorities. Have finally begun to bend to pressure to replace those systems. have finally begun to bend to pressure to replace those systems.

Boston this week, they also unanimously, their school committee, voted to change their entrance exam. It was interesting because they talked about... But amid the reforms, an uncomfortable reality has begun to emerge. Parents of Asian American students are battling against the new standards in court. That in trying to give better resources to Black students, many Asian Americans have come to feel that something is being taken away. And that in a conversation so often framed

in terms of white and Black, they are being left out of the conversation altogether. We are so diverse, but we were the wrong kind of diverse for the school board and the superintendent. Today, my colleagues Jay Caspian Kang and daily producer Jessica Chung have the story of one high school in San Francisco where all these tensions have been playing out. A high school that Jessica herself attended. It's Friday, June 24th.

Hey, how's it going? Good. Just bringing back memories. A little bit. Everything looks the same. Yeah. When were you here? So earlier this year on a foggy San Francisco morning, Jess and I arranged to meet up on the street outside of Lowell. How does it feel to be at Lowell High School? I don't know. I've thought about this school a lot, you know,

over the past few years just because of what I generally write about and what this school means within this community. You know, I live here in the Bay Area and it is a little bit surreal to actually be here. The first thing you need to understand about Lowell, to understand why we sound like this standing outside of a high school, is that it's not just any high school. All right, so I guess we'll put on our masks to go inside. Lowell is kind of a famous school, one of the highest-performing public schools

in the state of California. America's best high school is 2016, 2019. And frequently ranked among the best public schools in the country. Is this it? Yeah, this is it. A Lowell tradition, and there's a number of distinguished people who have graduated from Lowell.

Okay, let's check this out. Ah, Stephen Breyer. Is he the most distinguished alumni that people talk about? I think so. I think so. Let's see here. Oh, and Alexander Calder. Alexander Calder. Yeah.

1916 kinetic artist. Yeah, the mobile guy. Walder, 1916 kinetic artist. Yeah, the mobile guy. I wonder what level of success you'd have to cross to end up here. You should petition. You should be like producer of the hit podcast, The Daily. This board would have to get way big to accommodate that.

So a lot of big names have come out of Lowell. But if you live outside of San Francisco and you've heard about the school, it's probably because of its admission system. Students are admitted based on grades and test scores. And just like other merit-based public schools in places like Virginia and New York City, there's been a lot of controversy here over who gets in and who doesn't.

I will say, walking around, this is a very Asian school. Yeah. There's like a ton of Asian kids. There's just so many. What percentage would you say Asian it looks like just walking around? Right now it feels like 90. I know that's not the actual number, but it just feels that way, right? Yeah. Lowell plays a very specific role in the San Francisco school system. A lot of white,

upper middle class families send their kids to the city's private schools. So while Lowell might have a kind of elite status in the city. I can't get over how many signs there are about how good this school is. That's only within the context of the types of kids in San Francisco who actually go to public school. That's mostly working class and middle class kids of color. You know, despite all that, it doesn't feel like one of these storied places that you go to.

This is still like a very much like a city public school, you know, that just has a few more banners than normal ones. It just doesn't feel that different. It doesn't feel exclusive in a way. It feels actually, you know, just like a public school. Yeah. The reality obviously is somewhat different. And so because of that status, Lowell has become a school that represents something very important to a lot of families in San Francisco. It's thought of as this supercharger of class mobility. So if a kid works hard and gets admitted, it's recognition that the country is rewarding that work,

regardless of where they come from. But that admission system has resulted in a student body that looks very different from the rest of the district. Last year, for example, 57% of students at Lowell were Asian, compared to 34% in the district. And when it comes to Latino and Black students, it's the other way around. Last year, less than 2% of students at Lowell identified as black, even though 6% of the district did. And critics say that's created a discriminatory, hostile environment for black students in particular. Hi.

Hey, are you Aubrey? Yeah. Hi. How's it going? Good, I guess. Good, yeah. We met up with Aubrey Chickery and a friend of hers at the front of the school during a lunch break. Aubrey is a junior at Lowell, and this year she was one of just 44 black students at the school, in a student body of more than 2,700.

I have a question. You know, just from being here the last two days, it's just my observation. I have a question. You know, like, just from being here the last two days, it's just my observation. It seems like socially things are very segregated in a way that's actually kind of surprising to me. Because I grew up in North Carolina. It wasn't like this. Can you just tell, like, what's the social life like here in terms of race to kids? Is it pretty segregated? I mean, I know, like, the black and brown kids, we hang with each other more because we are the minority at this school. But I get, like, if there were a lot more black and brown students at this school, you would see more diverse groups of people. Aubrey's parents wanted her to go to Lowell because a cousin had gone there and they

saw the opportunities the school provided. So Aubrey applied and got in. What did your cousin tell you about Lowell? She said it was very intense and that a lot of things would happen like regarding racism and I, I was very much nervous because I didn't see a lot of kids who looked like me. I was often the only black kid in my class. So, yeah. You mentioned to me over the phone an incident that happened, I think freshman year.

Can you tell me about that, what happened there? So I had a I think freshman year can you tell me about that what happened there um so I had a friend in freshman year ex-friend now um he would use the n-word around me and joke about African Americans and one day he posted a story of how to ask a black girl out to prom with a picture of someone holding a bouquet of cotton and I didn't know how to report that to admin at that moment so I like held it on like I had to keep it to myself for days and I like didn't know who to tell um until the Padlet incident. The Padlet incident is a term you hear a lot when you talk to students at Lowell.

And this is the thing that happened last year that Jaya told me helps explain the whole school board recall. And it happened against this backdrop at Lowell, a controversial admissions system and a widespread feeling among black students that being black at Lowell was not a comfortable experience. Everyone on campus can tell their own version of the Padlet story. We've been talking to students and one thing that keeps coming up is this thing called the Padlet incident. I was wondering if you could, from your perspective, tell me how you found out about that incident. Where were you when you found out?

Yeah, so it was, I think it was in February. It was late January 2021, heading into February, in Black History Month. It was just an average day. It was like January 2021, heading into February and Black History Month. It was just an average day. It was like a Wednesday. I'm pretty sure this was over distance learning. This was during distance learning. That morning, students logged on to their homeroom classes to attend an anti-racism lesson. And as part of this lesson, students clicked on a link that took them to an online brainstorming board called Padlet. There is this thing called Padlet where you could post anonymous messages to answer questions of like, how do you be less racist?

How can students be anti-racist at Lowell? On this particular day, students were being asked to engage with the question of how the phrase All Lives Matter could be hurtful and undermine Black Lives Matter. But when students opened up the Padlet board... At that point, I saw just very graphic images, inappropriate slurs, very racist, like, sentiments. It had essentially been vandalized and was just covered in racist, hateful images.

One post was an image of a Black man giving himself oral sex, with the caption, Black Lives Matter. I was horrified. I mean, I thought I was on some wrong website. I felt like no way this is happening on a school-sanctioned activity. And within a few hours, images from the message board circulate around the whole school. All of a sudden, you see on Instagram, everyone's like, oh, this is unacceptable. Very quickly, the school administration announced that the board had been hacked

and that it was investigating the matter. And if it turned out to have been a student, they would take disciplinary action. You know, the administration didn't really react to it in the most effective way. Oh, we got this under control, guys. But many students said they thought the response was inadequate. That in talking about the board being hacked, maybe by a student, maybe by an outsider, the school was characterizing it as a kind of cybersecurity issue, rather than as a larger issue of racism within the school. I would define that as the moment where things really were set in motion.

A few days later, on January 26th, January 26th is now called to order. Roll call, please. The school board for the San Francisco Unified School District, SFUSD, met virtually for the first time since this incident. Students can speak to any item on the agenda. So please raise your hand if you care to speak right now. And during the meeting... Hi, can you hear me? We can, go ahead. Hi, my name is Micah. I'm a Lowell sophomore and I want to talk about the Lowell Padlet incident. A number of students

from Lowell called in. Hello, my name is Aaliyah Hunter. I am a sophomore and BSU treasurer at Lowell High School. Hi, I'm Nancy Garcia from Lowell High School. I'm a senior. And what started to pour out were stories, like Aubrey's, of what it felt like to be among the small number of Black and Brown students at Lowell. We really need to see something from administration. We really need to see something done about the racist acts that have gone on for years and years on end.

And then alumni and parents start to weigh in. Hello, caller, are you there? 415-297. Hi, my name is Sarah Brandt. I really appreciate so much the emotional and physical labor of Black students and families and adults sharing out today. I went to Lowell. It has not changed. Lowell's culture on so many levels continues to amplify anti-Black racism. So I just want to add that as an SFUSD teacher, I continue to ask why Lowell as an institution is allowed to exist. And what you heard was years of built-up frustration.

We should not have to keep coming back time after time after time with this same issue. How long is Lowell going to be allowed to be this racist powerhouse? And SFUSD is escalating. I apologize, but we have to make a change. I just hope and I pray that by the time my three-month-old is ready to go to high school, that law will be changed.

Do we have to wait that long? When are we going to demand change? When are we going to make it happen? Ask yourself, how long does it have to happen? Thank you. Thank you. This goes on for a really long time. And throughout the meeting, a student delegate on the board and president of Lowell's Black Student Union, Siobhan Hines Foster, speaks up repeatedly.

How much longer? I mean, it's truly a question. How much longer? And she's among the strongest voices that day, calling on the school board to do something about what they're hearing. Y'all sit up here with your SFUSD-centered, student-centered posters, anti-racist lessons that are hella janky, and just let this school do whatever they want. You need to fix it. Why do I have to go to school to be traumatized to get my credits to graduate? It's not just me. Alumni. Alumni before alumni. It's ghetto. It's raggedy. And it's your fault. And what you hear in response from the largely Black and Latino school board members. Thank you. Thank you. And I really want to emphasize that

there is so much burden our students are taking on that they've been sharing this over and over again. There's a number of board members really affirming the people coming forward that day. I'm not surprised because... And at some point, the board's vice president, Allison Collins, who is Black and had criticized Lowell for race issues in the past, connects these accounts of pervasive racism that they're hearing to the school's admissions policy and the efforts by the city to protect it. Racism is political officials speaking up on behalf of a selective enrollment system that perpetuates segregation. A number of board members jump on that,

including Matt Sanchez. Lowell has been a festering pool of racism for so long. It's been one of the main reasons why I've wanted a change for so long in the admissions policy. Who explicitly calls for a change. And it has to stop. We have to commit ourselves, colleagues. We have to commit ourselves

to ending the admissions process. We have to make that verbal commitment. And he's saying this has to end now. And then we have to do it. And just over a week later, the BSU, led by Siobhan, releases a list of 23 demands. And number one on that list is to change the admissions policy at Lowell. Number one on that list is to change the admissions policy at Lowell from a merit-based system to a lottery-based one, the system used by the other public schools in the district in admitting their students. Item one, resolution number 212-2A1 in after the Padlet incident at Lowell High School, the school board reconvened to consider a resolution. Matt Alexander, and student delegates Siobhan Hind Foster and Katia Correa Almanza.

Allison Collins and two other school board members joined Siobhan and another student in introducing a proposal that would eliminate Lowell's merit-based admission system. ...perpetuates the culture of white supremacy and racial abuse towards Black and Latinx students. What followed was another hours-long meeting. This one, 10 hours. And toward the end of the night, then we will move to roll call vote. The board called its vote. Roll call, Ms. Cosco.

Thank you, Commissioner. Mr. Alexander? Yes. Mr. Bogus? No. Ms. Collins? Yes. Ms. Lamb?

No. Mr. Moliga? Yes. Mr. Sanus? No. Ms. Collins? Yes. Ms. Lam? No. Mr. Maliga? Yes. Mr. Sanchez? Yes. Ms. Lopez? Yes. Of the seven board members,

That's five ayes, thank you. five voted in favor of the resolution. The two other members, including the only Asian member of the board, voted against it. And after decades of controversy and debate, Thank you, everyone, for tonight's discussion. That'll work the edge. Yes, it does. Lowell's merit-based admission system was eliminated with a 5-2 vote, meaning that

overnight the city's premier public school would function like every other school in the city. The next year's freshman class would not be considered based on their grades and test scores, but rather through a lottery system where any student who applied would have equal chance of being randomly selected for admission. And so a year after the school board meeting, with Lowell's merit-based admission system now done away with, we wanted to talk to students at the school about where things stood. And from what we'd heard, that all depended on who you talked to. Yeah, stereotyping us like...

Aubrey, the student whose cousin had warned her about coming to Lowell, says that she had been part of the push to change the system. She thought it would help. My experiences going walking down through the halls feeling like an imposter, like having imposter syndrome at this school, I feel like merit system really fueled that. And in terms of how the school looks, it has made a difference. This year's freshman class was the first to be admitted through the lottery process.

The percentage of black students in the freshman class doubled to 4%. Latino students rose from 13% to 21%. And those increases meant that the percentage of white and Asian students fell. And those increases meant that the percentage of white and Asian students fell. And how do you personally feel a year in a lottery system? How's it going? Like, are things better for you personally? Personally, I, well, in terms of seeing kids around the hallway who look like me, I do feel better in that sense because there are more kids who look like me in the hallways.

So, I mean, it's better in terms of not being lonely anymore in my classes. Everything else is just regular to me. There's still problems at the school that need to be solved. Do you want to add anything? Yeah, you didn't have to sit all the way over there. As we've been talking, Aubrey's friend Ariana Grice has been just sort of quietly sitting a few feet away, listening and occasionally nodding. But when the conversation turns to what it's been like at the school since the change in

the mission system, she starts to lean in a little bit, and she looks like she wants to say something. Yeah, what needs to change is also, like, parents and how alumni speak to us, I guess. I was there at 2024's, like, bake sale. The alumni came up to Aubrey and said, are you a freshman? So they automatically try to, like, put us in a box of,

okay, we got here through lottery, or, like, we didn't earn it we didn't deserve it we don't want to learn so I think changing that perspective I guess because whatever the parents are saying to their kids they're reflecting it back at us here at school and so like the lottery kids they're called that here which is basically the freshman class a lot of them want to learn and I feel like that's they aren't reflected well I guess students call them actually call them lottery kids like there's a term called the lots specifically used for black and brown students coming in

with lottery that I've heard white and Asian students use who also came in with lottery towards black and brown students so it's like they're targeting them they call them the lots the lots in the hallway okay a lot of the kids like passing period just saying hello to your friends in the hallways and they'll be like lottery kids get out the way you're always in the way oh you don't do nothing so i feel like it's it's this environment and it's causing these kids not to want to come to school. They're ultimately getting bullied and it's underlooked. So despite the fact that there are more black and brown students at the school this year. I think, no, I think it got

worse because of how many black and brown students came here. Both Ariana and Aubrey say that they think that the change to the admission system has actually increased the racial tensions at the of how many black and brown students came here. Both Ariana and Aubrey say that they think that the change to the admission system has actually increased the racial tensions at the school. They say that they can feel it on campus, that some of the students there who want the old system to come back, who don't like the new system,

actually blame black and brown students for the change. Well, thank you guys so much. Thank you. So during another lunch break, we walked around campus to hear how other students, Asian American kids in particular, were talking about it. We're talking to students about the admissions change and wonder if you guys would be willing to share your thoughts on it. I'm okay.

Yeah, I'm good. Thank you. You want to ask them? Yeah. Hey, we're from the Daily. We're talking to students about the admissions change and I wonder what your thoughts on it are you guys pro and no thoughts on it. Oh, okay. No thoughts on it. No, sorry. No thoughts on it. No, sorry.

Okay. You could definitely feel the hesitation from students to talk openly about the change. Is there like a fear of speaking out or even having a public opinion about this one issue? I think so, actually, yeah. But amongst the students who did open up, what we heard overwhelmingly was students agreeing that there are racial issues at the school. Lawyers being said at this school

and other students not wanting to talk to Black or Latino students. I have seen those cliques in in-groups. Of course we want more of those students. I want more equity. Latino students, like, I have seen, like, those cliques and in-groups. Yeah. Of course we want more of those students. We want more equity. I want more equity. But they had concerns that changing the admissions system had been the right solution. I just don't think this is the way to go about it.

And many of them seemed confused about what exactly the connection was between the Padlet incident and this change. I didn't feel like the Padlet incident directly correlated to, OK, now we have to go lottery. I think it's a politically expedient solution. I don't even think it's a solution at all. And among the biggest concern for these students seemed to be a sense of pride and protectiveness

over what they think makes Lowell so distinctive. It's just like Lowell's known for the whole like grades and test scores and stuff like that. And now that it's a lottery, it's like we're just like every other school. And everyone's like, oh, you guys step off of your high horse, whatever. Like at the same time, you work to go to a better school, right? And I think to myself, you know, would I want the college admissions process to be totally lottery? And what do I gain by going to a Yale versus SF State? And there's a very stark contrast, I would say, between the academic caliber of the kids there,

the caliber of the professors there, and the caliber of the material that you receive. I think the same concept is true for Lowell. We have this intrinsically motivated student body that props up this school as one of the most excelling schools in the country. And one of the things that kept coming up was a sense of frustration with equating the school's merit-based admission system with a racist school or administration.

I just don't think characterizing the entire school as an institutionally racist place is the right way to go about it. Have you guys talked to your parents about the merit system changing at Lowell? And how do they feel? Well, for my parents, they're very against the lottery system. Are any of your parents for the lottery system? A lot of head shakes. Yeah. Are they madder about it than you guys are, would you say? Probably.

Probably is kind of an understatement because the school boards changed to the admissions system. That was really just the beginning of this story. Days after the admissions changed, two parents in particular, one was white, one was Asian, launched an actual campaign to recall three of the school board members who had supported the resolution, including Allison Collins. And as angry parents across the city began to look a little bit closer into who they had actually elected in the school board, someone found a set of old tweets that Collins had written. In 2016, Collins, who is African-American, had numerous tweets directed at Asian-Americans, and one saying that Asian-Americans, in her words, used white supremacist thinking to assimilate and get ahead. Tweets surfaced from before her election suggesting Asian Americans benefit by white supremacy and a stereotype of being the model minority. She tweeted, many Asian Americans believe they benefit from the model minority BS.

She wrote, where are the vocal Asians speaking up against Trump? Don't Asian Americans know they're on his list as well? Do they think they won't be deported, profiled, beaten? And then she used a racial slur. She actually called Asians, quote, the House N-word. That term has a pretty long history. It was used during slavery for enslaved Black people who worked in white households and not in the fields. And the implication here is that Asians, in essence, are kissing up to white people, that they're distancing themselves from their fellow minorities, and that they're

trying to reap the benefits of basically buying into a white supremacist system. And for a lot of the Asians in San Francisco who saw these tweets, beyond just being offended by them, those tweets looked like evidence that the board was not just prioritizing black and brown students, but that the board was actually targeting Asian ones. We'll be right back. Now we're in Petrero Hill. This neighborhood, when I lived around here 15 years ago, was pretty industrial, and now it's been overtaken by this new housing that I imagine is mostly filled with tech workers. Looks like a really nice building on the corner. You can lease studios to three bedrooms.

A place to flourish. A new collection of California modern residences. So the Padlet incident and the resulting change to Lowell's admission system had led to this moment where many Asian American families in San Francisco were feeling that they were being targeted and unfairly represented. The door is probably around the corner here. And so after a couple days at Lowell,

we'd come to Potrero Hill, this gentrifying neighborhood of San Francisco, to visit the home of one of the Lowell students we'd met. Hi, Ben. Hi. Yes, I am. Hi. Hi. And you must be Jay. Hey, what's up, man? Nice to meet you. Hi, where should we, is there like a meeting? His name is Ben Chen, and like Aubrey, he's a junior at Lowell. Did you just get home from school? Yeah. And he greets us near the front of the building we'd been admiring on the corner. Yeah, what's the deal with this building?

It's a new building that was recently built in San Francisco. So my family won the lottery for this. And so we've been living here since. Is it a different type of place from where you're used to living? Yes, yes. It's much better. The old place I used to live in, it was like really bad. There was like ants and rats over like all over and it's like the whole building was infested with them. So it was a really horrible, horrible place to spend the first 13 years of your life. But for Ben's family, it represented progress. They immigrated here from China in 2007, when Ben was two, and started to build a new life here. During those early days, none of us spoke English. So they really had trouble to really find a job.

And I remember my parents going to community college classes to get to know some basic English. As he got older, Ben became the only one in the family who spoke fluent English, and he would often translate for his parents, helping them pay bills, navigate government services, food banks, that sort of thing. Let's just go into some of the schooling part of it. When did you first start thinking about going to Lowell? How old were you and how did you start preparing? Well, so I first heard about Lowell in a fifth grade PTA meeting

between my fifth grade teachers and my parents. And, you know, my parents at the time, I don't believe that they knew what Lowell High School was either. Ben says his dad was skeptical about the long commute across the city. He believed that my mother really wanted me to go. But for his mom, the school represented the path to a better life, the reason they'd come here. I'm going to bear down on this idea that it can provide you with a better life, right? Or with some form of even class mobility, right? Because you're a working class kid here in San Francisco.

How does it lead to a better life? Let's say that I didn't get to law and I went to a less academically inclined school. I do feel like I would be less motivated, in school. I do feel like I would be less motivated even though like I'm not being pressured by my parents to get into a good college. I feel pressure from my peers to get into a good college and seeing the amount of emphasis that they have on getting into a good college. I guess I also do feel some of that pressure. So I absolutely see that Lowell did offer me a better high school life than if I went to another high school. You know, like one thing I wanted to ask you is that like you have members of the San Francisco school board, but also like some activist people,

not just here in San Francisco, but around the country. And like when they talk about places like Lowell, they basically say that the Asian kids at these schools are rich and that they're white adjacent. You know, like how does that make you feel? It makes me feel completely ignored. You know, from my from what I say, Lowell, a lot of Asian kids like me, they aren't rich, right? They're also just poor, immigrant kids like me. And we feel ignored, right? We feel ignored that these politicians and the media, they're like overlooking the Asians that did come to this country with nothing but their clothes.

It makes me feel really angry, right, when people say that Asians are enabling white supremacy because I absolutely do not see that as a case. You know, I remember in military school and middle school, you know, people did tell me to go back to my own country. People did, you know, call me slurs and whatnot. And that experience of racism and being also called an enabler of white supremacy, that just makes us feel livid, right? Because we are the victims of white supremacy,

and they're saying that we somehow enable it. I just want to clarify something, which is that it sounds like one of the politicians you're referring to is Alison Collins, a board member who accused Asians of using white supremacy to get ahead. And that was also written in the resolution to change Lowell's admission system they said in language that Lowell's merit system had promoted white supremacy. Does it feel like they were

that kind of language conflates white people with Asian people? Yes. Given that the majority Asian school? Yes, yes it does. Absolutely. If I'm being honest, a lot of people I met, they actually forget that people of color includes Asians. They only think that people of color includes black and brown folks and I think that many of these politicians also have that way of thought. They also think that people of color does not include Asians. And I just wish that they would be more educated. This is one of the reasons we wanted to talk to Ben. From all my time spent covering Asian American communities, I can tell you this is the disconnect that comes up time and time again.

Allison Collins is not alone in characterizing Asians as white or white adjacent. But for a lot of Asians, poor immigrant kids like Ben, whose parents don't speak any English and who have no idea how to steer him through a strange new country, they don't really seem white at all. Poor kids like Ben of any race don't typically have a lot of options or people looking out for them. Meanwhile, these families have come to learn that Allison Collins and her family are wealthy and have resources that Ben and his friends don't.

And all this brings up another perennial question in this country. When we talk about diversity, who are we talking about? Lowell is 82% non-white. A third of its students come from families that are considered socioeconomically disadvantaged. Within the Chinese American students, that percentage is even higher. So how should we think about terms like diversity and equity? What do those words mean when the interests of poor immigrant kids might be at odds with the interests of Black students who for years have been redlined

out of the quote-unquote good schools, who do carry a burden of lowered expectations and suspicion? So how do you resolve that conflict? There's a reason why this is one of the great debates playing out in America right now. But for a lot of Asians, they feel like they aren't even being included in that discussion. I mean, why do you think people weren't listening to you? Asian Americans were the least represented groups in politics. So there's this culture also among Asian families to not get politically involved, right?

Because, you know, we're immigrant families. We came to this country. And, you know, my parents, right? My parents, there's this viewpoint that we are in somebody else's country. Therefore, we shouldn't have a huge say in it. And I believe that that's the perception among many Asian American families is to really be quiet on this issue, right?

And that is absolutely hurting Asian Americans in the process. Do you think that's changing? Yeah, I do feel that that's changing, right? You know, for instance, my parents, they don't care about politics at all. But on this issue, they at least have some opinions about it, right? And they oppose this change.

And I do see that there is a future in which Asian Americans have a much larger say in how this country is run compared to now. Do you know who I was recently talking to who surprised me with their recall vote? Who? My mom. At some point in reporting this story, I FaceTimed my mom just to check in. And I was telling her about what I was working on and that I might be coming out to San Francisco soon as part of my reporting. And her response totally caught me off guard.

Did she vote no? She voted yes. She recalled the school board, but she never votes. She's always thought that if you voted, you increase your likelihood of being drawn for jury selection. So she just never voted. And she's an American citizen? Yeah, she's an American citizen.

But she went out and voted for the recall? Yeah, she did. And I was on FaceTime with her, just catching up. You should interview her. I'm going to try. It seems like your parents are the ones that we should talk to. Okay. I'm in my childhood bedroom with my mom.

And I'm going to ask her a few questions about my high school and about the recall race. Recall race. Hey, let's help you. My family story is a lot like Ben's family story. They immigrated here with no money and no diplomas. My dad worked at a printing press and my mom worked the grade forverd shift at the airport. Neither of them is fluent in English, and neither of them had heard of Lowell. And they were never political. The idea of getting involved in anything outside of family or work was actually kind of scary to them. Like, it would get them into trouble.

And so, one of the things I was most curious about is how my mom even heard about the story. She says she heard about the emissions change at Lowell and the recall race last year. The Chinese language news channel, KTSF, had been reporting on parents who had been protesting over the Lowell emissions change. She says this is how her Chinese friends and co-workers learned about it too, that if it hadn't been for KTSF, they wouldn't have known what was going on. And what they heard made them feel it wasn't fair,

that Asian students who had the merits to get in would be rejected by the more randomized system. She also talked about learning through KTSF, that the three board members who were up for recall had been more focused on renaming schools in the district than in getting kids back into school during the pandemic. Overall, my mom said, she felt like the board members weren't doing their jobs. But I asked her,

but you've never been politically engaged before. What made you actually turn out and vote? We always say, like, vote, right? You rarely vote, right? So why do you think you should vote this time? Like, 投票, right? 你好少投票, right? 咁點解你呢次覺得要投票? 點解要投票? And she says again, it wasn't fair. 唔公平囉,所以我就要出嚟講囉。

And when I asked her how many of her friends voted, she said, 都好多人,因為我聽佢哋講,個個都有去投票。 She said, From what I've heard, everyone went to vote. She says in the past, Chinese families have been too focused on making a living to care about politics. But if something really feels unfair, they will come out and vote. And the recall organizers definitely did their work to convince Chinese voters that something unfair was happening. And it worked. Chinese people came out in droves.

San Francisco voters yesterday overwhelmingly recalled three of its seven school board members. For some Asian American parents, changing the admission policy at Lowell High School from merit-based to a lottery was a tipping point. It's interesting. Everyone got a ballot who was a registered voter for this recall. But the return of ballots was low. It was 26 percent. For those who requested ballots in Chinese, it was over 10 percent higher, 37 percent return. And so when the three board members were voted out, much of that was attributed to the newfound voting power of people like my mom. Is this different than the Chinese? So I asked her if she felt like this moment was different for Chinese voters like her.

And she said yes. I think this is the beginning of something different for Chinese people. I think from here on out, you're going to see more Chinese people voting. Because the student issue has activated the parents, I think Chinese families will be coming out to see more of Chinese people voting. Because the student issue has activated the parents, I think Chinese families will be coming out to vote more. On anything, they'd vote. In reporting this story over the past few months, we've heard the word fair a lot. It's a word that the students at Lowell used when they talked about the admission system.

And it's a word that Jess's mom used over and over in talking about what she expects from her government and what motivated her to vote. And what this signals to me is that a lot of Asian Americans in San Francisco and across the country are asking if progressive politics in the name of diversity and equity, if all of that is actually working for them. And if they're even considered to be part of that story. What many are asking is if these policies are meant to help them, or are they actually taking something away from them in the name of helping the quote-unquote real people of color? I think that's why these admissions fights have captivated the country. It's because they serve as referendums on the country itself. to the country. It's because they serve as referendums on the country itself.

Is America a meritocracy where even the kids of poor immigrants can make it? Or is it a place where equal access is necessary to right historical wrongs? And does it have to be one or the other? In the time since the school board recall in San Francisco, the three open seats have been filled by a prominent recall activist, Ann Hsu, and two other new members appointed by the city's mayor. Jenny Lam, who had previously been the sole Asian American on the board, is now the board's president. On Wednesday evening, the newly constituted San Francisco School Board held a special meeting. During it, they voted 4-3 to restore Lowell's merit-based admissions system as of next year.

The three new board members, plus Jenny Lam, were the four decisive votes in favor. Afterward, one board member who supported the vote said, who supported the vote, said, quote, There are no these kids, those kids. These are all of our kids. This should not be a zero-sum game where we pit one against the other. We'll be right back. the U.S. government took deeply divergent action on guns. In a major ruling, the Supreme Court's conservative majority struck down a New York law that limited who could carry a gun in public,

finding that all Americans have the right to arm themselves in places ranging from subways to grocery stores. Meanwhile, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass the most significant gun safety bill in decades, including funding for red flag laws and mental health programs, in a bipartisan vote that all but assures that the legislation will become law. And in their fifth televised hearing,

the January 6th committee documented a brazen attempt by President Trump to enlist senior officials at the Justice Department in his plan to overturn the results of the election. The president didn't care about actually investigating the facts. He just wanted the Department of Justice to put its stamp of approval on the lies. Senior department officials testified that in the final days of his presidency, Trump sought to install an inexperienced environmental lawyer named Jeffrey Clark as attorney general to advance the scheme.

That led to a dramatic showdown in the Oval Office involving Clark, then Attorney General Jeff Rosen, and the acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donahue. He said, so suppose I do this. So suppose I replace him, Jeff Rosen, with him, Jeff Clark. What would you do? And I said, Mr. President, I'm going to resign immediately. I'm not working one minute for this guy, who I just declared was completely incompetent. And so... Trump only backed down after the officials warned that they and their deputies would all resign. that they and their deputies would all resign. Today's episode was produced and reported by Jessica Chung,

with help from Asta Chaturvedi and Rob Zipko. It was edited by Lisa Tobin and M.J. Davis-Lynn, with help from Lisa Chow, and fact-checked by Caitlin Love. It contains original music by Marion Lozano and Dan Pell, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansford of Wonderly. Special thanks to Stella Tan. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro.

See you on Monday.