Education needs a mantra for the New Year

There is a reason most people fail at keeping their New Year’s resolutions—breaking habits or creating new ones takes time and consistency.

But as Tanesha Peeples with the Education Post so straightforwardly put it, the practice of consistency in the context of our public education system has only resulted in failure. It is time for the public school system to get a “character assessment, a reset and it needs a ‘new year, new me’ makeover.”

This broken system has lied to, cheated, belittled and abused Black students and families. The blatant belief that Black skin makes people inferior—and therefore, less deserving—is what’s contributed to the consistency of failure and overall indifference in supporting our academic success.

So in this case, we can no longer allow the space and leeway for the system to get it right—we have to continue to apply pressure.

One form of pressure Peeples shares is parent and student voice. Despite families of color intentionally choosing charter schools and other learning environments because the neighborhood public schools are failing them, Democratic presidential candidates and other leaders on the left dismiss these voices.

The latter end of 2019 was outright sad. Black and Brown parents endured an onslaught of attacks while trying to voice their education concerns to Democratic presidential candidates.

And to this day, those candidates are proceeding with their original agendas despite vocal opposition from those Black and Brown parents.

This isn’t anything new. These “leaders” and decision-makers have consistently dismissed the voices of people from marginalized communities while simultaneously petitioning for their support and their vote.

Until the status quo changes, not all students will have the “new year, new me” opportunity they deserve.