After a meeting on February 27 with the leaders of the nation’s HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued a press release, in which she stated that due to an “absence of opportunity,” “HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice.” DeVos was immediately and rightfully critiqued for…
The caricature of Donald J. Drumpf, sketched through bellicose gestures, is mesmerizing in its shock value. While this political turn holds and has meant immediate danger to already vulnerabilized populations, it is insufficient to see Drumpf’s rise as a one-off celebrity rupture of an otherwise democratic society. It is also insufficient to attempt to determine…
From the interests of equity and education, there is little doubt that the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education is bad news for public education and great news for private interests. But she is not a recent arrival for venture capitalism in education. We must understand the thorny lineage in which she…
It’s back to school time. I love this time of year. Late summer minutes are longer and shorter all at once. Each year, I hang on to the last tendrils of August, the earlier sunsets and cooler nights quickened in my romanticism. This is when I simultaneously dread and cannot wait for the first class sessions. I…
I recently accompanied my mother to an appointment with a neurologist. My mother was nervous about this medical interface. As a woman who taught herself English, she has never been one to enjoy the onslaught of perceived and actual filters that go up when the listening ear of the dominant culture hears an accent. She…
Important essay that speaks to the real desire for and then resultant backlash to decentering whiteness. Take-way: we need ethnic studies. Source: The Beginning and End of Ethnic Studies
“There are – there are those who contend that it does not benefit African Americans to, to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a less – a slower-track school where they do well. “One of – one of…
Originally posted on tressiemc:
The painful truth about hand-wringing over whether Affirmative Action “harms” racial minorities is that no one cares if Affirmative Action harms racial minorities. The faux concern for the well-being of poor put-upon non-white students who are promoted beyond their ability never extends to concern for the many more white students who…
Schools are one of the most historied and intractable locations of racialization in the United States. From the Bureau of Indian Education’s mission to ‘kill the Indian in him to save the man,’ to the ways that zero tolerance policies contribute to disproportionate expulsion of students of color, schools are raced and they racialize. They are…
Almost eleven years ago, Katrina hit New Orleans. Among the many radical impacts the storm had, public education ranks in the top. At first, it would seem that Boston, a city that ranks highly in educational achievement, has very little to learn from New Orleans. And yet, New Orleans presents a cautionary case study of…
Leigh Patel 
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