Whose Schools? Our Schools!

    

On July 22, 2017, I had the privilege of speaking at the Charlotte March for Education representing NOW Charlotte. The March for Public Education was held simultaneously in cities across our nation including Washington, DC. The mission statement for the march was that "our public schools will be safe, inclusive spaces for learning and critical thinking, where all children discover their passion(s) and role(s) as citizens. As members of March for Public Education, we aim to advance policy and recursively address issues of: equity, inclusion, accountability, a well-funded institution, and the right to organize." The Charlotte March for Education was held at Marshall Park in uptown Charlotte. There was a small but very enthusiastic group of supporters on a very hot Summer day.  This is an excerpt from that speech:

    Public Education is very dear to my heart. My mother was a public-school educator and I am a proud product of public education. I spent my life in public education and now teach at Central Piedmont Community College. I believe in the power of public education to lift all students out of poverty and adversity and into the realm of opportunity. I have had the privilege of being part of the lives of many public-school students who have dreamed dreams and achieved those dreams.

     As a public-school educator during the first few years of desegregation, I saw firsthand the ravaging effects of poverty and discrimination. I see those same ravaging effects of poverty and discrimination still in our schools today. I see school systems being desegregated. I see the continuing inequity of education in high poverty neighborhoods. But we all know that with the proper funding, support and the belief that all students can achieve and succeed no matter what the circumstances of their birth are, we can raise up all our students- including our most vulnerable- our children in poverty, our homeless and our English language learners.  Education is not a luxury for the wealthy, it is a human right and human rights are not optional!

     Today we stand in a very dangerous place. Our public schools are under attack, not by a foreign force, but by our own President and Secretary of Education. The Trump administration’s policies have become synonymous with educational disparity, misguided focus and inhumane cuts to programs and services. Trump’s proposals to cut public education are a direct threat to the very heart of our democracy. The DeVos plan will cause cuts in vital areas of education- with Special Education, Bilingual Education, medically and emotionally fragile students and our socio-economically disadvantaged students taking the hardest hits. Under the Trump/DeVos education plan, class size reduction is eliminated, professional development is ended and thousands of educators will lose their jobs. Title 1 funds for our high poverty schools will decrease because that money can now be used for other things before even being given to the schools that it is designated for. Twenty-two programs are to be eliminated including after school programs that serve 1.6 million children, most of whom are poor.  Arts programs, foreign language programs, programs for gifted students, mental health services, physical education, advanced placement courses, science and engineering instruction and even the Special Olympics are on the chopping block. Our colleges and universities will suffer the same types of devastating cuts with the elimination of over $700 million in Perkins loans for disadvantaged students and work study programs being cut.  Programs that provide child care for high poverty parents attending college and adult literacy programs are cut. I could go on all day! These cuts not only harm our children, but our families and our single mothers who are trying to improve their lives, making it almost impossible for them to get an education. Due to the race/gender wage gap, women have a more difficult time repaying student loans once they complete college; therefore further cuts to grants and loans are devastating. 75% of educators are women so the loss of thousands of jobs will again hurt working mothers.  And who will benefit? Religious, Private and Charter Schools! Public dollars, OUR dollars unconstitutionally supporting religious and privately-run schools, with little or no accountability.
  

     When I look at our own city with 4,400 students identified as homeless, we are looking at a demographic that Trump and DeVos have only seen from the backseat of their limousines! We are looking at a population that they simply do not care about. We have a President that travels with a moral compass that only points to himself! We will never find common ground with an administration that is cruel and callous to our children. Public school children are not products that Trump and his cronies can make money off of!

     We must stand together to fight this injustice to our public schools across our country and in our state by letting our voices and our votes be heard. We must tell our friends and foes in Raleigh and on Capitol Hill to fully fund public education and that public money must go to public schools. We must demand the schools that our children need to be successful in the 21^st century! We must resist and we must persist- starting today- starting right now! We will not give in and we will not give up! We know the power of education to change lives, neighborhoods and nations. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world.” When we are here on a hot Summer day in the middle of July defending our public schools, we are defending our vision for a better world! Thank you for being here today!