Parents Union - CT

My Thoughts on Nicole Hannah-Jones’s NY Times Op-Ed I am a Black mother of two. My children, former NYCPS students graduated and are doing fine. Yet I spent nearly two decades fighting for Black and Brown children in NYC public schools because I believed every child deserves a high-quality education. I fought to extend the time teachers had to earn tenure, strengthen teacher evaluations, hold schools accountable, and give parents a voice. I fought in schools, on the streets, at City Hall, in Albany, and in the courts as a plaintiff in a few education lawsuits including the landmark case Davids vs. New York. I would NEVER sacrifice my children — or anyone else’s children — at the altar of the teachers’ union. A decade ago, Nikole Hannah-Jones chose to send her daughter to a failing, predominantly Black school rather than a higher-performing school. She made that choice in the name of confronting segregation — and persuaded other Black and Brown parents to make similar choices. A decade later, she writes about her daughter’s academic struggles. But here is what cannot be ignored: Hannah-Jones has the financial resources to address the consequences. Many Black and Brown parents do not. They cannot necessarily afford tutors. They cannot simply put their children in private schools. They cannot buy their way out when the public school system fails their children. So the consequences extend far beyond one child. It wasn't only Hannah-Jones’s child who was asked to pay the price. It was the children of the Black and Brown parents who listened to her, too. Black and Brown children should never be sacrificed to prove an ideological point.

Our job is to teach the students we have. Not the ones we would like to have. Not the ones we used to have. Those we have right now. All of them. #education #teachers