RAINBOW PUSH TALKS ABOUT EQUITY IN EDUCATION

Rainbow Push Coalition and PUSH Excel hosted a virtual town hall to celebrate the birthday of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., titled, “Shaping America’s Education Agenda: Seeing Dr. King’s Dream Through.” In this photo, Dr. King gives his “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.
Rainbow Push Coalition and PUSH Excel hosted a virtual town hall to celebrate the birthday of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., titled, “Shaping America’s Education Agenda: Seeing Dr. King’s Dream Through.” In this photo, Dr. King gives his “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.

Rainbow Push talks about equity in education

 BY TIA CAROL JONES
     Rainbow Push Coalition and PUSH Excel hosted a virtual town hall to celebrate the birthday of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., titled, “Shaping America’s Education Agenda: Seeing Dr. King’s Dream Through.”
     Dr. Sonya Whitaker, national education policy director of PUSH Excel, was the moderator for the discussion, which included the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Dr. Nicol Turner Lee, Ralph Martire, Dr. Fadhilika Atiba-Weza and Dr. David Wilson.
PUSH for Excellence, also known as PUSH Excel, advocates for equal education funding for students and strives for education excellence. It was founded by the Rev. Jackson, in 1975. Dr. Malveaux is the president.
     Whitaker said Push Excel launched a virtual series in November 2020, titled “Shaping America’s Education Agenda.” “Providing all students with equitable access to a quality education is important to the vitality of this country. This series was designed as a springboard for helping to shape the future of our country’s education policy,” she said.
     Malveaux said there is a deficiency in the educational system in the United States. She said Dr. King was critical of existing education systems. Having pre-kindergarten for all, rethinking standardized testing, early exposure to STEM fields, creating access to technology, an Historically Black Colleges and University agenda with more dollars flowing into HBCUs and eliminating the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), were issues Malveaux discussed. “We need to be careful to look at the ways our young people are being sidelined,” she said. “Education is a bridge that so many people walk over to get to a different life.”
Malveaux called for people to be education advocates, the same way people are advocates for other things. She added, educational spending needs to be looked at and advised people to lobby their state legislators.
     Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said education is directly tied to economic viability in the modern economy. He said it is a fundamental economic and civic right for every student in America to receive a high-quality education from their public school, irrespective of their race or income.
     Martire said there is institutional racism built into funding mechanisms that govern K-12 education. He said, how much money a school district needs to educate the students it serves - based on demographics and income level, etc. - can be determined by using the evidence-based funding model.
     What we found was the old system had significant gaps in funding, statewide, between well-funded districts and lower income districts, but those gaps were even worse along racial lines,” he said. “That disinvestment in African American students had gone on for generations.”
     Martire said since the evidence-based funding model was put in  place three years ago, $874 million has gone to those school districts that educate 75 percent of Black students.
     “The model’s actually working to reverse this significant disinvestment that has gone on for years,” said Martire. Bad news is, he added, is that the state still underfunds K12 education, according to the evidence-based model, by some $7 billion, he said. “So, we have a long way to go to catch up. I think education is a core civic right, frankly, of everybody in America. The educational system has to provide each student the opportunity to learn.”

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

STARR Community Services International, Inc.