Every black parent, at some point, has to have “the talk,” the proverbial sit-down where we engage our children in a serious discussion about how black people are treated by police. We explain how to converse with police, how to make eye contact, how or when to show respect, how, when necessary, they must sometimes genuflect to unjust authority in order to protect themselves.
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Posted inColumnists
Black children deserve the stability that their neighborhood schools can offer, despite studies that may indicate otherwise
School closure is a tactic we don’t have to take. Under the new national education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, states have been freed to employ strategies they deem fit just as long as they act on the bottom five percent. When we’re talking about improving urban districts, though, we always seem to land […]
Posted inAndre Perry
OPINION: Charter backers can stop the NAACP moratorium — by meeting these four demands
Since the NAACP at its national convention voted on a resolution that placed a moratorium on charter schools, the backlash from charter advocates has been angry, well-financed and sometimes just plain mean leading up to a vote of ratification by the national board, which occurred this past weekend. By singling out the NAACP with multiple […]
Posted inAndre Perry, Columnists, Elementary to High School
“Educational Choice” is a slogan slick enough for Donald Trump
Donald Trump outlined his policy and philosophy for K-12 education in a speech at Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy (CASSA), a for-profit charter school in the largest city of battleground state of Ohio. The Republican presidential nominee and founder of Trump University accused Democrats of trapping black and Hispanic youth in failing public schools […]
Posted inAndre Perry, Columnists, Elementary to High School
Democratic political infighting over education pulls the rug out from under black families
The U.S. Democratic political machine is in full gear this summer as special interest groups drive toward a common goal: Getting the party elected to the highest office in the land. But the political action group Democrats for Education Reform has veered off the road, blasting negotiators who altered part of the 2016 Democratic Party […]
Posted inAndre Perry, Columnists, Elementary to High School, New Orleans, The South
With the nation in turmoil, Ed Secretary King’s quest to diversify schools is the right pursuit
Here is something worse than the current racial tensions in New Orleans and other cities: The outcomes caused by racial biases in our policing, schooling practices and stark economic inequality between black and white families. Negative quality of life outcomes and racial strife evidence our failure to learn how to live together, which compromises our […]
Posted inColumnists
Let students lead the way in protests over police killings
Baton Rouge, LA — The perspiring temperatures outdoors were outdone by the racial climate created by years of police killings. Indoors, the climate was slightly less heated as hundreds of co-eds and community members crammed in the African American Cultural Center and the adjacent Women’s Center on the campus of the Louisiana State University in […]
Posted inColumnists
Unlike gated communities that front as niche schools, this New Orleans art high school is a true magnet
In the national pursuit to create better high schools, we seldom turn to art schools for inspiration. But innovation can be found in our conservatories. That’s what I found when I spent a semester at an art school. If you’re not from New Orleans you may not have heard of the New Orleans Center for […]
Posted inColumnists
Immigration can redeem education reformers’ progressive credentials
Immigration policy is to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton what health care was to President Obama. Democratic education reformers should act accordingly and prepare to lose some “friends” in the process. Republicans’ failure to offer amnesty to undocumented immigrants only increases the amount of time immigrants naturalize and assimilate. There is no practical, political […]
Posted inColumnists
A haircut won’t end gun access, poverty or under-resourced schools. But let’s admit it comforts a desperate parent
“I see my child about to die every day.” That’s what one despondent mother told me when she phoned looking for help for her teenage boy; all she wanted was for her son to get out of the drug game. Tattoos, the smoke-blackened lips and sagging pants were the in-the-face reality experienced by this mother. […]