By Dawn Montgomery
Black Press USA Contributor

Austin, TX — Last week, I was one of 10 Black influencers who arrived here ready to discuss the future of education for young people during the Southwest (SXSW) Education Conference.

EdChoice, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to understanding and advocating for a K–12 education system that empowers all families to choose the schooling environment that best fits their children’s needs, organized the gathering at the Thompson Hotel, and the hospitality was top-notch. On the first day of the conference, Emory Edwards, EdChoice’s Vice President of Outreach, asked the influencers, who had backgrounds in journalism, media, and education, and most of whom were parents, “What can we do to truly support our black kids and cultivate community?”

A few participants shared their educational backgrounds and explained how education started in their homes. This icebreaker exercise underscored how each person would add value to this layered topic. It was great to hear the range of experiences while everyone held space for others who may not have experienced the same thing in their homes. We were all moms, fathers, or professional aunties, finding ways to cultivate community through shared content. A producer from TheGrio shared her confusion about being brought into this discussion, but it took the group only a short time to help her understand her value in this room.

There’s value in sharing your experiences with other people, and there’s value in being someone who can help amplify or produce these stories. This fight to keep our books in school libraries, remove police and school resource officers from schools, and save Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in higher education while challenging the school choice narrative is pivotal. Advocating for school choice is often perceived as a “Republican thing,” but after hearing Edwards explain EdChoice’s mission, that mindset shifts instantly.

Many Americans are pro-school choice but are afraid to admit it because of how the Left has weaponized it. Parents need to have the right to choose which school their child attends. There’s power in knowing that a parent has that right. While the SXSW Conference is best known for its interactive sessions and “hip” music festivals, SXSWEDU should also be on your radar. The gathering of educators, businesses, policymakers, community members, thought-leaders, experts, and influencers shows a vast range of topics that can happen here. However, there’s still room for it to grow. EdChoice’s staff shared how they realized years ago how programming kept the few Black & Brown attendees from supporting each other, so they networked among those attendees to change this.

Several organizations at SXSW are collaborating this year to create, promote, and fund educational programs that center on Black and Brown voices. Understanding that Black educators are overlooked and unrepresented in school choice conversations is crucial. EdChoice invited Black influencers in education to attend this conference to create impactful discussions. With that intention, you know this experience will shift the narrative.

EdChoice polls thousands of parents nationwide to understand how they feel about the schools their children attend. School districts and legislators should acknowledge parent preferences so that they know how their community feels and what they need. Legislators could create more inclusive bills and discover ways to spread resources across their state if they considered parents’ concerns. Some legislators think they know better or do not care about parents’ preferences.

Finding ways to have conversations across party lines and connect with people wherever they are on their educational journey is essential to EdChoice. Everyone who participated in the discussion was Black and shared similar educational journey stories; however, you ‌could still hear differences in how they approach and view our school systems today.

EdChoice is doing what most organizations fail to do: creating space for Black and Brown perspectives on education. I hope EdChoice will continue to engage Black educators in discussions like this at future SXSW Conferences so that we can do our part to save American school systems that fail our children.

The post EdChoice Empowers Families to Choose the Best Schooling Environment first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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