We’re less than a year away from the 2020 presidential election; last week we saw seven Democratic presidential candidates participate in a forum dedicated to education issues held in Pittsburgh. If you follow my column, you were well-prepped on the issues they discussed. If you didn’t tune in, here’s a primer on the educational issues […]
Search results
Posted inRace and Equity
COLUMN: What rational parents must do to combat education conspiracies
Recently, the right-wing magazine The Federalist published a warning to parents in the form of a conspiratorial, unhinged and poorly supported op-ed titled, “If The Left Ends Parent Rights, You Might Need A License To Raise Your Own Child.” In the piece, author Stella Morabito built on the hysteria around critical race theory to forewarn […]
Posted inAndre Perry
COLUMN: Employers, don’t blame the ‘skills gap’ on workers, blame yourselves
For the past 200 years, Philadelphia workers have built ships for both commercial and military use. Philly is the birthplace of the U.S. Navy and produced the nation’s first military ships after President George Washington signed the Naval Act into law in 1794. Today, a robust apprenticeship program supported by public spending is providing Philly’s […]
Posted inAndre Perry
COLUMN: The American Rescue Plan will halve child poverty, but we haven’t won the second War on Poverty yet
President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan is one of the boldest legislative packages since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s. Within the first 100 days of Biden’s new administration, he has overseen passage of a law that will make a huge and immediate impact on families living in poverty across the country. Beyond […]
Posted inAndre Perry
COLUMN: The four steps to safely reopen schools and save our nation
President Joe Biden began his term in office calling for unity. To reach that end, some of his initial policies must create common ground to rebuild a society decimated by Covid-19, conspiracy theories and white supremacy. Perhaps the only thing we can all agree on right now is that we must reopen schools safely, and […]
Posted inOpinion
On Mother’s Day, skip the flowers and invest in the moms
Elsie Mae Boyd worked as a domestic worker, cleaning white people’s houses, through the 1950s and ’60s in Pittsburgh. When I was born in 1970, my biological mother struggled to take care of me so Elsie — the woman I call Mom — informally adopted my older brother and me, with my younger brother joining […]
Posted inElementary to High School
COLUMN: Rewrite the history textbooks, or the white supremacist violence will continue
Authors of history textbooks writing about the failed insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 must not ignore the event’s white supremacist underpinnings. The influence of white supremacy on American history has largely been disregarded by past and present writers, especially in accounts of the Civil War. Too many of these books still waffle about the reasons […]
Posted inElementary to High School
COLUMN: Trump’s disastrous immigration policies will continue to destroy lives
Even in its final days, the Trump administration’s immigration policies continue to destroy individual lives, communities and schools. Reflecting the corruption and immorality of a man who was recorded pressuring Georgia officials to “find votes” to overturn the 2020 presidential election, immigration officials are trying to deport a devoted Louisiana educator who actually loves our […]
Posted inElementary to High School
Teachers, cafeteria workers and school bus drivers should be next in line for the Covid vaccine
When Sandra Lindsay, director of critical care nursing at a Long Island hospital, received the first vaccine for Covid-19 approved by the FDA for emergency use, the shot to her arm on Dec. 14 not only boosted her immunity for the virus, it lifted our collective hopes that this tragic period in world history would […]
Posted inAndre Perry
COLUMN: The next education secretary must know about much more than education
In the days after President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, you didn’t have to be inside the beltway to hear whispers of names being floated for cabinet positions — rumors that were later confirmed as fact: Janet Yellen, former chair of the Federal Reserve Board (Department of the Treasury); Vivek Murthy, former Surgeon General under President Barak […]
