Asiyah: Redefining What It Means to Be a Concerned Parent and Citizen

Asiyah’s wide-ranging experiences in education and activism can help us broaden our own views about school choice and activism. Her story demonstrates that the way we think about education and activism is often much too narrow.  She helps us believe that finding the best school for our children is not limited to what’s right in front of us, and that being an activist can also be a matter of choice. In education,… Read More

How Can I Become a Parent Advocate?

By Cheryl Kirk It’s no secret, that as parents, we are our children’s biggest and best advocates. The phrase parent advocate can be a bit overwhelming for parents. We have so many things to do and places to be, it’s easy to think we can’t be PTA president or room mom, but there are so many ways to advocate for your child. My youngest son has struggled with his transition from elementary… Read More

5 Questions Every Black Parent Needs to Ask Their Child’s Teacher and School

I spent nearly five years at a nonprofit focused on getting students in and through college. Many of the students who entered our program were not on track to graduate high school and required working closely with counselors, parents and principals to ensure they would graduate high school and hopefully continue on to college. Our goal was not only to ensure students graduate, but also to equip parents with the skill set to… Read More

Bridging the Gap: The Educators Perspective

Many times educators feel that they all have to take the blame for the children who are struggling.. At times we group teachers all into one category and forget we  have many who go above and beyond for our children. During my last two blogs I have been addressing the gap between home and school. It’s no secret that this is a serious issue and needs to be addressed. For this post,… Read More

Local Heroes: Nicole Bouie and the Community Commitment Education Center

Amid all the talk about student testing, education policy and what not, it’s easy to forget that at the center of the conversation are actual children. But there’s plenty of hard work going on at the ground level by individuals and organizations dedicated to the needs of our children. They include social workers, engineers, mentors, and teachers just to name a few. Some are professionals, some are volunteers, and most have mobilized… Read More

Poverty Within our Schools

With the holidays coming up, you think about the families who have love, respect and support for each other but lack money. Parents always want better and more for their children than what they had as children. They want to give them the best money can buy. Most important, parents don’t want their children to see them struggle or stressed out. But we live in a time where the cost of living… Read More

We The People

    We The People, We Got Work To Do With the people, for the people, by the people. I crack up when I hear it; I say with the handful, for the handful, by the handful, cause that’s what really happens                                -Fannie Lou Hamer This past weekend, voters in the great state of Louisiana went to the polls to choose from several candidates vying for city, parish and statewide political seats in various… Read More

Meeting of the Minds

  I recently attended a town hall held by the Orleans Parish School Board at my daughter’s school, Andrew H. Wilson. What I thought was going to be a meeting to discuss issues within the school system and how they planned to fix them did not happen. For starters, I wonder why these sorts of meetings are not advertised to the public. There are numerous ways to do so, like social media,… Read More

We Must Not Give Up

Would you give up on your child? Would you allow anyone to hurt them? Are they less important than the next child in the next state? Of course, we as parents would never give up on our most precious gifts. Our children help save us from the hardest times in our lives, so wouldn’t we save them from their hardest times? Children have been made to be the most controversial issue in… Read More

NOLA Parent Perspectives town-hall meeting

The town-hall meeting moderated by Dr. Andre Perry at Dillard University Georges Auditorium is presented by the Louisiana Black Alliance for Educational Options, Orleans Public Education Network (OPEN), Stand for Children Louisiana, and the Urban League of Greater New Orleans. .