Education

Local High School Students Examine Injustice in the U.S.

NEW ORLEANS DATA NEWS WEEKLY — High school scholars were given an opportunity to speak out against social justice and inequity at the Criminal Justice Symposium of Scholars.

Published

6 years ago

February 3, 2019

Oakland Post

By Kotey Thomas

High school scholars were given an opportunity to speak out against social justice and inequity at the Criminal Justice Symposium of Scholars organized by the Bard Early College in New Orleans program on January 26, 2019, at Dillard University’s Professional School Building. The symposium also brought experts who work on social justice issues from various disciplines like environmental, criminal, and arts-based, to educate young people about these issues.

“I wanted to be able to organize something like this to give them the opportunity to not only engage with that bridge between an academic self and activist self, but also to reassert the significance of their own voices,” said Imani Sheppard, an assistant professor of medical humanities at Bard College in New York, and the coordinator of the event.

Sheppard said that seeing young people engage issues about social injustice, early on, inspires hope for a more equitable future. “I would hope that it reassures listeners that all is not lost, and that there is a potential for positive upward movement within the community starting with these students who often don’t have a voice,” she said.

The event’s speakers hoped that such forums, outside the classroom, can help future leaders see how social and political structures lead to forms of oppression.

“Policies that pass in our neighborhood are based upon those who govern,” said Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes, the keynote speaker, who is the director of strategic neighborhood development for the Claiborne Corridor Cultural Innovation District. She illustrated that those in power control how neighborhoods are developed around socio-economic status; putting those in lower class neighborhoods at a societal disadvantage.

“If you live in Gert town…Tulane, Gretna, Seventh Ward and Ninth Ward areas, chances are your neighborhoods have been decimated by the policy decisions of our leaders,” Ecclesiastes said. “You need lots more in order to have better outcomes in life because the cards have been stacked against you,” she added. “And I challenge you all to help us deal new hands.”

For many students coming from these neighborhoods, especially African-Americans ,the school-to-prison pipeline is institutionalized through urban school culture, said Tuere Burns, the executive director of BarNone. Her non-profit organization was founded to provide people affected by incarceration with opportunities for entrepreneurship and success. “If you have not been to any of the local schools here, go visit. And you’ll see. You’ll see tape on the floor, you’ll see the way the children are handled and not respected,” Burns said.

After working for 25 years in social justice campaigns around the prison industrial complex, Burns explained that the system profits off of inequality. “[It] makes a ton of money off of our people, poor people, and especially our boys,” Burns said.

Social justice advocates from the National Association of Multicultural Education examined how different groups in the community, both academic and faith-based, could intervene in forms of oppression, particularly when it comes to policing. Students said the experience opened their eyes to become more aware of how subtle injustices can be.

“You are not to be so blind with patriotism that you cannot face reality,” said Ron Triggs of International High School of New Orleans who was the first student of the Bard Early College in New Orleans program to present his research.

“Due to power dynamics, we refuse to challenge the systems,” Triggs said.

In identifying forms of systemic oppression, the students outlined in their presentations that this was the first step to breaking decades of inequality within the African American community.

“Getting out of a cycle of destruction often takes a lot of resources, and is even harder when your own education system is trying to destroy you,” Triggs added.

The organizers said they hope such critical learning, outside the classroom, would prepare high school students for facing the challenges of today, long after they graduate. “Deprogramming. I feel that is what we are working towards,” Sheppard said. “Deprogramming students from what they feel is normal and what they have accepted as normal,” she said.

This article originally appeared in the New Orleans Data News Weekly.

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Five Years After COVID-19 Began, a Struggling Child Care Workforce Faces New Threats

Five years ago, as COVID-19 lockdowns and school closures began, most early educators continued to work in person, risking their own health and that of their families. “Early educators were called essential, but they weren’t provided with the personal protective equipment they needed to stay safe,” said CSCCE Executive Director Lea Austin. “There were no special shopping hours or ways for them to access safety materials in those early and scary months of the pandemic, leaving them to compete with other shoppers. One state even advised them to wear trash bags if they couldn’t find PPE.”

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And now a new round of challenges is about to hit childcare. The low wages paid in early care and education result in 43% of early educator families depending on at least one public support program, such as Medicaid or food stamps, both of which are threatened by potential federal funding cuts. Job numbers will likely fall as many early childhood educators need to find jobs with healthcare benefits or better pay.

In addition, one in five child care workers are immigrants, and executive orders driving deportation and ICE raids will further devastate the entire early care and education system. These stresses are part of the historical lack of respect the workforce faces, despite all they contribute to children, families, and the economy.

The economic impact was equally dire. Even as many providers tried to remain open to ensure their financial security, the combination of higher costs to meet safety protocols and lower revenue from fewer children enrolled led to job losses, increased debt, and program closures.

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Many states have continued to support the workforce after ARPA funding expired in late 2024. In Maine, a salary supplement initiative has provided monthly stipends of $240-$540 to educators working in licensed home- or center-based care, based on education and experience, making it one of the nation’s leaders in its support of early educators. Early educators say the program has enabled them to raise wages, which has improved staff retention. Yet now, Governor Janet Mills is considering cutting the stipend program in half.

“History shows that once an emergency is perceived to have passed, public funding that supports the early care and education workforce is pulled,” says Austin. “You can’t build a stable childcare workforce and system without consistent public investment and respect for all that early educators contribute.”

The Center for the Study of Childcare Employment is the source of this story.

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Front row: Megan Imperial, Genice Jacobs, Bobbi Lopez, Courtney Welch, Janani Ramachandran, Hercules Councilmember Dilli Bhattarai, Sarah Bell, Laura Babitt, Ashlee Jemmott, and Shawn Danino. Rear row: Ben Gould, Sam Davis, Victor Flores, Zac Bowling, Nate Hanson, Teddy Gray King, Cathy Adams, Neil Tsutsui, Sam Gould, Lauren Wilson, and Nick Pilch. Courtesy photo.

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Actor, Philanthropist Blair Underwood Visits Bay Area, Kicks Off Literacy Program in ‘New Oakland’ Initiative

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Blair Underwood (left) and Barbara Lee (right). Courtesy photo.

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