Page 2 The Skanner May 30, 2018
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Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
School Choice Not the Right Choice for All Students
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Executive Editor
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Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
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Graphic Designer
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
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Photographer
2017
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Opinion
hen the best educa-
tors in America trav-
eled to Washington,
D.C. for a series of
events celebrating innovation
in the classroom and to share
best practices in K-12 educa-
tion, they let officials at the
Department of Education and
the White House know ex-
actly how they felt about the
Trump Administration’s cur-
rent push for school choice
programs.
According to edchoice.org,
school choice programs allow,
“public education funds to
follow students to the schools
or services that best fit their
needs—whether that’s to a
public school, private school,
charter school, home school.”
In April 2018, the Depart-
ment of Education (ED) host-
ed the “Honoring Martin Lu-
ther King Jr.’s Drum Major
Legacy: Innovative Pathways
to Success” celebration; the
event was sponsored by the
White House Initiative on
Educational Excellence for
African Americans in collab-
oration with the Center for
Faith-Based and Neighbor-
hood Partnerships.
The Education Depart-
ment’s MLK Legacy event
honored individuals who per-
form extraordinary acts of
service in their communities,
specifically those individuals
Dr.
Elizabeth
Primas
Progam
Manager,
NNPA
who support high-quality ed-
ucation for children of color.
Many of the awardees work
with parents or community
groups that provide primary
care for children; some even
provide educational support
services outside of the tradi-
“
Every child
should be
entitled to
high-quality
education
in the Unit-
ed States of
America
tional public school model.
School choice became a hot
topic during the event, as sev-
eral attendees were visibly
disgruntled at the mention of
the controversial approach.
The Trump Administration
has proposed to decrease
funding to authorized in-
vestments for public schools
while increasing funding op-
portunities for school choice
programs and private school
vouchers. Ninety percent of
children in America attend
public schools. Increased
funding to school choice pro-
grams, while reducing fund-
ing to public schools is a strat-
egy that leaves behind our
most vulnerable students.
Secretary of Education
Betsy DeVos has repeatedly
said that she’s committed to
uphold the intentions of the
Every Student Succeeds Act
(ESSA), the education law
signed by President Barack
Obama. However, the priori-
tization of school choice pro-
grams in the proposed FY2019
budget contradicts one of the
original intentions of the
law: to promote equity and
increase access to high-quali-
ty education for all students.
Furthermore,
prioritiza-
tion of school choice isolates
homeless children, migrant
children, youth in foster care
and children from military
families. In fact, ESSA re-
quires that school districts
report student outcomes for
these groups for the very first
time.
The 2018 Teacher of the
Year awardees echoed similar
concerns during their annual
White House visit in April.
The top teachers in the coun-
try reported that they did not
approve of funding private
schools at the expense of their
most vulnerable, at-risk stu-
dents.
Every child should be enti-
tled to high-quality education
in the United States of Amer-
ica. Every neighborhood
school should be equipped to
provide high-quality courses
and curriculum. Every stu-
dent should have highly-qual-
ified teachers and a menu of
extra-curricular
activities
to choose from. Until the ad-
ministration prioritizes the
equitable improvement of all
schools, their verbal commit-
ment to uphold the original
intent of ESSA is just another
“alternative fact.”
Learn more about the Every
Student Succeeds Act at nnpa.
org/essa.
Dr. Elizabeth Primas was the
2000 Teacher of the Year award
recipient for Washington, D.C.
Dr. Elizabeth Primas is an
educator, who spent more than
40 years working towards im-
proving education for children
of diverse ethnicities and back-
grounds. Dr. Primas is the pro-
gram manager for the NNPA’s
Every Student Succeeds Act
Public Awareness Campaign.
Follow Dr. Primas on Twitter @
ElizabethPrima3.
Protecting Our Community During National Foster Care Month
I
n the late 1980s and early
1990s, our community was
under a full-fledged attack.
Crack was in our streets, it
was in our schools, it was in
our parks, it was in our play-
grounds, and for some, it was
in our homes. The epidemic
wasn’t just affecting one part
of the community; this im-
pacted the entire community,
leaving sons without fathers,
daughters without moth-
ers, and parents, ultimately,
alone.
But the carnage didn’t stop
there. Policies enacted during
the crack epidemic exacerbat-
ed the destruction. Children
in South Los Angeles were
ripped away from their par-
ents and shipped off into the
child welfare system, some
to never see their parents, or
their families, again. It was
at the height of the crack ep-
idemic when the number of
kids in foster care exploded
and the percentage of Black
youth in the system skyrock-
eted.
Now, the country, not just
our community, faces a new
epidemic. Our child welfare
system is already becoming
increasingly populated due
to the consequences of the
opioid epidemic. The current
Rep. Karen
Bass
Senator
(D-Calif.)
crisis is starting to devas-
tate families and our already
over-worked and under-re-
sourced child welfare system.
This time, we must apply the
lessons learned from the
“
No one knows
more about
the pitfalls of
our nation’s
child welfare
system than
those who
grew up in it.
crack epidemic: if you want
successful policy, you must
include the affected commu-
nities in the formulation of
new policy.
We cannot afford to turn
our backs on those impacted
again.
At the end of this month,
the Congressional Caucus on
Foster Youth will host its 7th
annual Foster Youth Shadow
Day, a program that brings
foster youth from all over the
country to meet and shadow
the very Members of Con-
gress who represent them in
Washington, D.C.
No one knows more about
the pitfalls of our nation’s
child welfare system than
those who grew up in it. These
young people are travelling
thousands of miles to come
to D.C. to share their stories—
both their challenges with
abuse, trafficking, overmed-
ication, or homelessness—as
well as their successes with
mentorship, adoption, fami-
ly reunification, community
activism and independent
living.
The result of these visits is a
better understanding of how
to improve the child welfare
system and fight against this
epidemic. The FY 2018 omni-
bus bill that was passed ear-
lier this year had the single
biggest increase in invest-
ment in child welfare funding
history along with a large in-
vestment in funds to combat
the opioid crisis. Despite this
progress, there will always
be more work to be done and
this month, I look forward
to continuing this fight. Na-
tional Foster Care Month is a
month to honor the successes
and challenges of the more
than 400,000 foster youth
across the country and to ac-
knowledge the tireless efforts
of those who work to improve
outcomes for children in the
child welfare system.
Making sure that all chil-
dren have a permanent and
loving home is not a Demo-
crat or Republican issue – it
should be an American pri-
ority. Our society is judged
on how we treat the most vul-
nerable amongst us. We must
invest in life improving foster
care services, praise foster
families, caregivers, and rel-
atives for their selflessness to
others, and continue to pro-
vide a hand up so that foster
youth can realize their full
potential.
Congresswoman Karen Bass
represents California’s 37th
Congressional District. She is
the 2nd Vice Chair of the Con-
gressional Black Caucus and
the co-chair of the Congressio-
nal Caucus on Foster Youth.
Follow her on Twitter at @Rep-
KarenBass.
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