After reading the article below, as well as the stories about Loudoun County Public Schools where Black students' correct answers are marked wrong, called the n-word, AND are re-enacting American chattel slavery, I decided to do a short [THREAD] https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/school-bullying-trump-words/

I'll preface this by saying that I have been exclusively educated in public schools.

I run an organization, @virginiaexcels, designed to develop and amplify new voices around educational equity.

I'm also from Prince Edward County. If you don't know our history, Black students led by Barbara Johns (we now have a holiday named after her in VA) walked out protesting the separate and unequal conditions in 1951. That protest became part of the Brown v. Board case in 1954.

Five years later in 1959, local government refused to fund a desegregated public school division. Public schools were closed for five years as Prince Edward County is often referred to the brainchild of Massive Resistance.

If you're interested in learning more about schools in Prince Edward County, I highly recommend starting with "Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County" by my good friend @kgreen. https://www.amazon.com/Something-About-Prince-Edward-County/dp/0062268686

Despite all of that, I often tell people that Prince Edward County is the epicenter of American Progress. That's another subject for another time.

I said all of that to say this, my experiences in schools were nothing short of traumatic. Fortunately, I had the privilege of having three loving parents who helped me through these situations.

For the sake of time, I'll say this: the aforementioned things that students are experiencing in Loudoun County aren't limited to there.

I personally experienced them in Prince Edward County and students across the country have shared that they are experiencing them as well.

This is why I'm a huge advocate for wraparound services for students. If we just focus on schools, grades, and test scores (let me be clear, we do need data), we are failing students.

This is even more important post-COVID (I hope this is sooner than later).

If students return to school and we just move forward with business as usual, we've failed them and our communities.

Students AND their families will need support around all of their needs, which include, but aren't limited to: housing, food, employment, behavioral health, physical health...

If we aren't actively working to cultivate and support the complete development of children, then I don't want to hear, "these kids nowadays" again.

Let's just be real: if a student is hungry, couldn't sleep because of extreme weather conditions, or experiencing homelessness, can't see the notes on the screen/whiteboard, it will be hard for him/her/them to learn.

I'll be very clear, schools need more money to address the evolving needs of students. BUT I want y'all to know that schools are sometimes perpetuating trauma themselves for students in America.

So, I push back when folks say things like, "just give schools more money." To do what exactly? To agonize students further?

Loudoun County is one of the best funded schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Money doesn't make the socio-emotional issues go away in our schools that are hurting students' academic achievement. As long as we ignore that fact, we will just have well-funded traumatic schools.

Fairfax County Public Schools is the division that the Rest Of Virginia's divisions typically compares themselves to. They are dealing with a number of issues as well. Check out this article... https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/report-racial-disparities-persist-on-test-scores-hiring-and-discipline-in-virginias-largest-school-system/2019/06/30/e3047d22-9827-11e9-830a-21b9b36b64ad_story.html

So yes, our schools need more money. But money alone won't fix the issues that are plaguing divisions across this country.

And that takes me to my take that I admitted would get me blocked by some today...

I view American schools the same way that I view policing in America; neither was designed for people like me.

American schools were designed for affluent white men. Contemporary police are derivatives of slave patrols.

Now we have to figure out how to make them work for ALL.

I publicly said that I didn't think Defund The Police was the best message. I understand the premise behind it, but I went into a long monologue about deficit-based messaging and the electorate. I'm happy to continue the conversation, but this isn't about that.

Both institutions, schools and policing, are drastically in need of transformation. Truthfully, we are asking both institutions to do too much.

And that is inherently the problem. We need to fund the services that complement both institutions better.

The hypocrisy is, many of my friends and folks up here are saying that we should fund schools more and defund (sometimes even abolish) the police.

I'm a Black man in America. I've seen the worst of both systems:

I've been grossly mistreated in schools because "there's no way a kid from the projects can know that."

I've had guns pulled on me by cops because they "wanted to check a few things."

Both systems need significant transformation. As an article I read in Edweek eloquently said, we should be "using the crisis upon us to accelerate the unfinished work of repairing the flaws and deep system inequities of the "old normal" in [America]."

That article was specifically talking about education and what teachers can do since many parents can actually observe what's happening inside of the classroom now.

But those sentiments shouldn't be limited to education.

The 2021 General Assembly session is nigh. While demanding money for schools, it's critical for us to center the needs of students first.

This isn't to minimize the needs of any other constituency involved in schools.

I'm just saying that if we center student needs, we can do something other than enhance traumatic triggers for them.

[END]