GISD Equity Audit

The Future is US is a grant-funded non-profit organization and collaboration focused on dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline in the Galveston Independent School District (GISD). The school-to-prison pipeline affects students of color, especially Black students. students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students, and more – making it harder for students to fulfill their academic potential. GISD conducted an equity audit last school year, where they had researchers from The University of Texas A&M gather and analyze school discipline from the GISD K-12 classrooms, yet the audit has not been released. The Future is US took the initiative to conduct their own equity audit which revealed that Black students were 3x more likely to be taken out of their classrooms than their white peers. In fact, minority students in general are more likely to be removed from the classroom for discretionary, and often unfair reasons, receive strict and overly harsh punishments, and become “repeat offenders” because of administration’s implicit bias that causes them to focus more on minorities when looking for troublemakers.