Dear President Biden Administration,
Nearly 3 million U.S. children were not served well by remote learning last school year. To date, there are still children, many Black, Brown and rural students, who lacked the internet access, devices, and support for technology assistance needed to attend virtual or hybrid school offerings.
However, we all are aware that the digital divide in America wasn’t designed for white children to be negatively impacted.
Unfortunately, Black and brown students in traditional public schools are much like juveniles in detention centers. They are dismissed at the end of the day and return to the same cycle of systemic oppression.
It’s an oppression that suffocates the life out of innovative best practices that teachers want to use to reach students who aren’t being served well. But in the traditional public school system, there is no room for innovation.
This is the real reason why people don’t want Black and brown families demanding innovation in schools; so they get stuck on the “charter vs traditional” public school debate!
It’s not about charter, traditional, public, or private. It’s about allowing innovation into the conversation so that we reimagine how we’re educating children, how we’re revamping curricula for inclusivity, and the ways we are upgrading how we offer classes, instruction, and models for educating children.
The Fordham Institute’s latest report suggests that charter competition also has a neutral-to-positive effect on the achievement of students in school districts.
They basically are saying that charter schools don’t hurt traditional public schools; they help them by giving better educational options to the families traditional public schools are failing.
It’s not a debate of if charter schools are taking something from children. They help by providing Black and brown students educational options, especially for the students who intentionally have been left behind.
For example, 7 Pillars Career Academy, in Clayton County, is the State of Georgia’s first and only non-suspension school. This is disrupting the system.
Many Black and brown families supported the Biden/Harris ticket, and we are expecting the Biden Administration to have the moral values that aligns to social justice needs. We didn’t forget!
It’s time for the Biden Administration to implement these action items. Give Black and brown students their civil right of a free, fair, and equitable education by having this Department of Education support reimagining schools through innovation and implementing civil and social justices acts.
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.