The Second Line Blog

The Waiting Game

Three dozen charter schools are waiting on a decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court on the constitutionality of charter school funds.  Parents and students must be prepared to make decisions about the court’s ruling.
“We don’t want anyone to feel panic.  We are very positive that our students will have an opportunity to choose an appropriate place for their education.”

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Columbus Day is coming and I just can’t

By Tanzi West Barbour

Monday is a holiday for some. According to the calendar, it’s Columbus Day. Thinking about this day as someone who is part Native American, and its historical context reminded me of a conversation I had with one of my son’s teachers at the beginning of this school year concerning the social studies objectives for the class.

“It’s all focused on European history,” I told him. “Where is his history?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“No worries,” I said. “He’ll introduce it to you and that way you both will learn. His connection will be through his ancestral history.”

“That’s fine,” the teacher said. “I am open to being flexible with how students approach the material.”

Now trust me when I say I believe educators should be in control of their classrooms and they should be able to set boundaries around what will be accepted and what won’t. And that would be okay in this instance except I wasn’t asking for permission. I was simply making sure my son did not spend the school year learning about someone else’s history without the ability to either learn or teach others about the impact his ancestors had on those same historical lessons. I wanted to make sure he knew he was being included.

Additionally, I do not believe that anyone should ever have to ask for permission to be counted.

Not the student in a predominantly black private school where black history isn’t part of a social studies class.

Not the lone token person of color who is the only or the first in their workplace.

Not the Dreamer who came to this country for a better life.

Not the resident of the U.S. island who has been waiting to receive the basic necessities needed to survive after being ravaged by a hurricane more than two weeks ago; only to have the 45th President of the United States visit and throw rolls of paper towels at them.

We should all be counted.

That’s why each year it has become harder and harder for me to acknowledge Christopher Columbus Day until I finally stopped two years ago. I just…can’t. Perhaps it’s my version of taking a knee against all things that holiday represents in its celebratory rhetoric and store sales. I just can’t honor a man who stole, killed, and lied. I cannot in good faith nor in truth allow myself to honor a commemoration of a time when we weren’t counted as important.

And we were here first.

When I have this conversation with my friends and colleagues, many of whom are white, they nod in receipt of my viewpoints but not necessarily in agreement. And that’s okay. Again, this is not about seeking approval. But if I had the opportunity to create a call-to-action for Monday it would be to use your position, whatever it is, to create opportunities for the disconnected to become connected. Use your voice to speak for the disenfranchised when decisions are being made for them without their inclusion. Or better yet, give up your seat in the room so they can finally, FINALLY join the conversation.

My constant prayer since the day that I became a mother has been for my children to never feel like they need approval to be who they are – unapologetic and awesome. That prayer has broadened recently to include all of us. May we all live long enough to exist in a world where we are all counted and gone are the days when one race of lives seemingly means more than others.

Enough is enough.

As I tell my children every day, “Birds never ask for permission to fly. They just do. Just like you never have to ask permission to be great or smart or included. Just be. That’s your inalienable right and it’s your blessing. Live it to the fullest.”

Call me on Monday if you want to talk. I’ll be at work.

 

College or Bust? Ed Reformers Should Offer More Choices.

 

This blog was sparked by an article from the Hechinger Report, After Decades of Pushing Bachelor’s Degrees, U.S. needs more Tradespeople.  Reading this article made me subsequently begin my mind to churning and thinking about the way I have seen education play out over the recent years. Let’s just be practical about this debate. Among almost all of us, we know a handful of people who owe student loans whether they obtained a degree or not and honestly we know many people who have degrees who struggle to find work in their field of study. Many are underemployed and underpaid yet schools continue to push a monolithic form of post-secondary achievement.

According to the article,

The United States has 30 million jobs that pay an average of $55,000 per year and don’t require a bachelor’s degree, according to the Georgetown center. People with career and technical educations are actually slightly more likely to be employed than their counterparts with academic credentials, the U.S. Department of Education reports, and significantly more likely to be working in their fields.”

Earlier this year a group of high school seniors from Warren Easton Fundamental School and Grace King High School proved that academics and career path can both be beneficial whether pursued together or separately. In their case, they benefited from a dual enrollment program between their high school and Delgado Community College by earning their Electrician Certificate of Technical Studies one week before they graduated from high school. Sixteen of those students also made the national academic honor society by achieving a 3.4 GPA in the program

Delgado Community College says that “some of the class plan to go directly to work, some plan to continue at Delgado and some are heading to four-year colleges”.

Seeing that success, knowing what we know about educational options and data, I would like to ask advocates in the charter school movement, “Why have we been so one-sided on our support of what children desire to do after graduating from high school?

Why aren’t we pushing back against this mass herding towards a bachelor’s degree when it may not be the best option for all students? Is anyone looking at high student loan debt and the juggernaut of supposedly sufficient high school students using their pell grant money to pay for remedial courses which cause major financial hardships in the pursuit of a bachelor’s degree?

Ultimately I believe an education to be priceless and the pursuit of it to be a personal plight for every student individually. However being a practical man I know that the many experiences and guidance from adults often times shape the pathway and future of our children. I see it as a true disservice to the students of today to not expose them to the extensive amount of careers that are available to them. Are we developing open-minded critical thinkers by feeding them a singular path of achievement without vividly highlighting the various options that they can pursue doing their lifetime?

The charter school movement should weigh its options when it comes to presenting life decisions to its students and families. Maybe a diversification in their portfolio is needed going forward. A portfolio that is full of choices

Brandon Caples is in the Game

 

Brandon Caples is a twenty-something Orleans Parish public schools graduate who represents the next generation of education advocate. He is a millennial who is just breaking into the field of education justice, working with whatever organization he can to get the work done. He wants every child to get the best education available, and he’s willing to play his part in making this happen.  In fact, he reminds me of when I was in eighth grade and played basketball for my church. The coach moved me around nearly every week. I played point guard, forward, even the center a couple of times because even though I wasn’t tall, I was feisty. At the end of the year the coach gave us each an award. I received the “I’ll play anything” award. I’m now ready to pass on this award to Brandon Caples, who also doesn’t seem to mind what position he plays, as long as he’s in the game. And the game, of course, is education justice.

I first met Brandon when my organization hired him to organize youth to intervene in the school-to-prison pipeline. Out of all the applicants he stood out as the most passionate and determined, and after the interview, we immediately knew we would hire him. In that time, he was willing to do what he could to learn about the laws and policies that create inequitable discipline practices in schools, and share the information with other youth. In just a short while, he organized a small, but powerful group of college students who were invested in the work.  Although he has moved on from our organization, he continues to make an impact on education in New Orleans.  He has patiently endured the many cycles of funding and losing funding at a few organizations in town. But he has stayed persistent and keeps finding new roles in the education equity movement.

Talking to him, it is clear he cares deeply about the school system and the City. He often compares his experience of school to the experience of his nieces and nephew, who range in age from nine to thirteen and currently attend New Orleans public schools. Brandon grew up in New Orleans East and went to a private school until second grade, but then switched to a public school in the Pontchartrain Park Gentilly neighborhood for the remainder of elementary school. He attended middle school in Mid-City and high school in the Uptown area of New Orleans, with a brief interruption caused by the flooding in 2005. Reflecting on his experience, Brandon appreciated his ability to attend schools outside of his neighborhood.

“My parents wanted me to be able to go the best schools I could. I had to take a lot of public transportation, but I could go to a school across town, not just the ones in my neighborhood.”

He is worried that in the past several years, school choice has actually become more difficult in practice, even though it seems easier on paper. He explained that his nieces and nephew were simply placed in the schools they attend even though those schools weren’t their parents’ top choices.  In particular, he sees more racial disparity.

“Families are not making choices from an even playing field. The system needs to account for that. White kids get into the good schools, and Black kids end up in the failing schools.”  Brandon believes the system is designed to privilege those who are already privileged. He points to selective admission schools as evidence.  He also thinks the school enrollment system is too difficult to understand. He himself didn’t know much about it until he worked for Sharon Broome when she was serving as a state senator and focused on educational equity. That’s when he became a more active advocate of policy change.  When I asked him what he wants to see changed in New Orleans, he explained that he wants schools and children to have an expanded view of the world and of education.

“Schools need to reimagine the education system and what we want kids to learn. The world is changing, but I don’t think schools have kept up. They have to realize there are a lot of ways for kids to be talented. They need to value these other ways, like writing a book, doing poetry, or being creative. We need to find new ways to teach. We need to realize it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. ”

Brandon advocates for school partnerships with non-profits who can provide creative outlets as well as bring expertise in other important areas, such as healthy eating.  He is also concerned that with a narrow view of what education means, schools are too focused on their own performance scores. He tells me about his nephew’s recent experience at a local school.

“I think the school passed him just to pass him so they didn’t look bad. He was in the third grade and he couldn’t read. But he was getting ‘C’s. We moved him to another school and he started getting ‘F’s, but that was where he was really at. And he had to work harder and the teachers had to work harder, but at least we knew.” From his own family’s experience, Brandon recognizes it can be hard to get a child into a good school, and it is important to intervene before they are failing.

Brandon also knows the value of seeing a bigger picture.  He was fortunate that his parents took him on vacations usually twice a year, mostly in the south, but also in the mid-west. He visited family in Detroit. Though he does not downplay the trauma, he thought this was the one upside of the flooding in 2005—a lot of families and children got to experience life outside of New Orleans.  So when he was applying for college, he knew he wanted to go out-of-state. He applied only to out-of-state colleges, and ended up at the University of Tampa in Florida.  Knowing the value of that experience, he wants all children to be curious and engaged with the world, however possible. He hopes new generations can find a balance between technology and human interaction.

“We all need to find a common ground, respect each other, care for each other. I think this generation will create a lot of new things. They are great with technology. But they need to balance that with humanity.”

Older generations of activists seem concerned that millennials are not engaged enough. But Brandon is proof of how that engagement might just look different among younger generations. He is finding balance between multiple projects.  Along with working with various education justice efforts, he is a writer, and he started a small business that he hopes will brings visibility to plus-size men’s fashion. He is a new kind of advocate, tackling social justice issues from many different sides, in many different roles.

Big Money for Literacy

Louisiana will receive $55.5 million for literacy programs for students who are in need of more assistance.  The money will be distributed over the course of three years and will focus on literacy from birth through grade 12.
“The ability to read is crucial to a young student’s eventual success. Funding literacy programs like these and taking other legislative action, which includes addressing dyslexia, will help students reach their full potential.”
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School Choice Sacrifices

School choice often brings very early school mornings that begin with long bus rides.  Despite the sacrifice of sleep and extended travel time to school, the payoff is quite often worth it for many parents and students.  For other parents, it can prove to be challenging if they want their children to attend closer schools that happen to be high-demand schools.
“I’ve seen many times we’ve come out here to the bus stop, and you got kids that are leaning up here against the building falling asleep.”
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New Schools for New Orleans Board Addition

Former federal prosecutor, Kenneth Polite, joins the New Schools for New Orleans board.  The education reform group looks to provide education to bring children out of poverty.
 “We need to have a young workforce that is properly trained and educated to take those opportunities and run with it.”
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Hope Breakfast

InspireNOLA Charter Schools and Senator Troy Carter partnered to host the second annual Unity of Hope Breakfast.  The event coupled community leaders to support students returning to school for the year.
“Young people face particular challenges today and need the support of the community to stay focused on education. Seeing city and area leaders at the event showed the students how important academics are to their future.”
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