Transcripts For CSPAN3 Brown V. Board Of Education History Of Decision 20170602

Good afternoon. Its quiet in here. I felt like ways in a funeral. We have to do something about. This the body is not here. You know, it was really somber and everything. I know the weather is impacting us. Id like to welcome you. My name is johnny taylor. Im the president and ceo of the Thurgood Marshall college fund. Welcome to our headquarters. This is home for us. We share this building with gallup, our partner in the work that were going to be embarking upon over the next several years. But we just want to welcome you to our home. Im going to tell why you were here and turn it over to the panelists. Were here toinlt deu introduce of special people in the room. A very special person here is the founder of the Thurgood Marshall college fund dr. Join payne. None of this would happen, we would not be here fit wasnt for her vision to create an organization that would really focus on the historically black college and university community. Our members are the state supported institutions but we represent all of the hbc community and our advocacy efforts and scholarship and our program attic interventions Capacity Building and the like. So, again, i just cant thank you enough for having the vision. And its a wonderful thing when you can look to the person who founded the organization and theyre alive and well and vie branlt. We just left africa and china on a 15day tour and she outdid me. I was like wow, i came in on the back end of the trip. How is she doing that . Im so embarrassed. But dr. Payne, thank you. Were it not for the charles cope foundation, i know the representatives from the charldz Coke Foundation and Coke Industries are in fact here. This say very good special moment for us. I have to make sure, i dont tip lick call out people. Meredith, please stand. [ applause ] we got to shout. Meredith is an executive at Coke Industries. First time i ever went to wichita, kansas, i met meredith. Shes been a huge supporter on the business side for this event in particular. It was her idea to be totally candid. She said i really think we should explore. She wanted it on may 17th, the anniversary. Im like she called and said may 17th, we need have an event. I thought to myself, and what is the significance of that . We always think 1954. I had never really paid attention to the specific date. This was her brain child because we both and all of us collectively in our organizations, the charles Coke Foundation, Coke Industries, center for advancing opportunity and the Thurgood Marshall college funneled, were committed to this work. I will not forget my good friend here who is from the charles Coke Foundation, brendan brown. Please stand up. None of this would happen without the three people hit people hei people ive had the pleasure to work with for the last 5 1 2 years. It feels like just yesterday. So were here today to really answer the question through a group of specially selected panelists and amazing keynoter, no pressure steve, at the end of the day, to explore brown versus board of education and whether or not the promise was fulfilled. You know, its a question mark. And what we intentionally design this program today, the first center for advancing opportunity event, we intentionally wanted to get some historical context. You know . Thats onest things that we and the academy and those of white house are really interested in making sure that we advance good policy that really will make a difference. The first panel today are people who themselves or parents were part of the either cases, canyon cases and the like, they were part of the series of case thats ultimately culminated with brown versus board of education, the decision were going to talk about today. The second panel will be going forward. Were going to look forward and were going to really explore with people from the academy. People who are practitioners and the Charter School space and other Public School education space. We have to determine what really happened. We had a vision. All of us had expectations back in 1954. Thats what today is about and were going to do it with evidence and rfrp. This is not an emotional discussion where people have opinions that they cant support. That will really be the hallmark of the center for advancing opportunity. All of our work will be research based. Were going to make a case for any position that we take. I think and hope that youre going to enjoy today. This will serve as a model for discourse that should occur all over america where people take real data, real results and we can make good policy. We can be fairly assessed. Thats what today is about in terms of, you know, really exploring brown versus board of education. I have the Great Fortune of im quite fortunate, i should say, to bring up our first ever executive director. Her name jennifer wider. Shes coming around. Jennifer is someone im so proud of. Go ahead. Do your miss america. Jennifer joined our organization almost a decade ago where she at one point was our chief development officer. Worked with me and meredith and brendan and we designed this center for advancing tuvenlt you was so pleased two mazz ago when we announced the organization, maybe three months ago that jennifer was the executive director. She has a wonderful career at the United Negro College fund and Thurgood Marshall fund. Shes a graduate of syracuse university. Im a hurricanes graduate so the orange is what we have in common. So i wanted you all to meet jennifer wider. Shes going to take it away from here, our executive director. Thank you very much, jennifer. Thank you very much, johnny. Thank you. We made it into the chairs, right . Great. So thank you all so much for being here today at our first ever official event, our first symposium. And today were asking the critical question, was the promise fulfilled . The promise of brown versus board of education . Im so delighted to have this panel with me. So before we get started, lt me introduce our panelists. First we have Miss Virginia weldonford. She has over 20 years of experience in education and in 1998 sheshgs founded d. C. Parents for School Choice. Just last week the heritage piece she wrote about the importance of access to education where she states that when it odometers residential real estate, schools often wind up linked to property values. Dr. Alonzo smith is a history professor at Montgomery College. He was also one of the two curators for the museums observancest 50th anniversary of the supreme Courts School desegregation decision. Finally, the v. P. Of advocacy and served on d. C. City council and d. C. State board of education. He also has over 20 years of experience in urban Public Education. Thank you all so much for being here today. At the end of the discussion, well open the floor to discussions. There are microphones at either side of the room for you to be able to line up and ask questions. Ill let you know when the appropriate time comes. Okay. So we have multiple generations represent theerd day on the panel. And that was important because we wanted to get different perspectives of their experience. And so the first question that i would like to pose to each of the panelists is what were the barriers to Educational Opportunity as you saw it either through your own personal experience or through your parents experience or through your familys communities before the brown versus board of education decision . And ill start with you, miss ford. I grew up in little rock, arkansas. I was in the second round of kids that went to central after the little rock nine. But one of the barriers is my dads story. My dad was from North Carolina where black kids could only go to the eighth grade. And he made his way somehow to alabama to go to Stillman Institute and he worked his way through Stillman Institute. So my dad went to stillman at 13. I used to think, i wouldnt let my 13yearold go anywhere. And he just left home and went to stillman, worked his way through, went to stillman junior college. And then went to flaner Smith College and ultimately he became a assistant superintendent of Little Rock School district. My life has always been based on my parents. My parents were both teachers. The importance of education was it just talked about all the time in our familiarly. And i watched my parents teaching in all black schools where we went. And, again, we when we got ready to graduate from Junior High School at the time, there was no middle school then, junior high, we expected to follow our older brothers and sisters to the black high school of little rock. And what we were told is that we had been picked to go to central. To continue the desegregation process. And, of course, we didnt want to go. I mean we wanted to follow our older sisters and brothers to the black high school. So 130 of us went into central. Again this is after brown. But that was where it led to. I was 6 years old when little rock central was intergrated by little rock nine. I remember even at 6 years old i knew the importance of what was going on. I got it. Even as a little kood. We understood that we needed to be in better educational environments. Thank you very much. Dr. Smith . Well, i grew up in Columbia Heights in d. C. And my first four or five years of grade school were at bk bruce school which is now bruce monroe on german avenue. And, you know, it was an all black. People look at me and theyre surprised. But, you know, at the one drop rule was. Anyway, that was a school we to see from our front porch. But i went in the opposite direction, ten blocks in the opposite direction down the street to bruce. So the white school was under capacity. Bruce at that time we had three shifts of students. Because it was so crowded. And my mom was a member of an Organization Called the consolidated parent group. Which is headed by mr. Bishop who had a barbershop on u street. And several of the kids i grew up with, you know, hugh price, advertise mother was a member, a number of other women. But it was very diverse group. It was headed by a man who is a barber. There were these women who were faculty wives and various kinds of people. But i remember hearing about this all the time. I didnt know what was going on really. Ill be honest with you. I really didnt understand everything. He was okay with that. I remember some of the community meetings. He lived right across the street on New Hampshire avenue. I knew it was these were momentous things going on. But i really didnt understand exactly what was happening. So i have to be honest, i was a witness with history without really understanding what was happening. So thats my story, i guess. Thank you. Yeah soshgts small world. I grew up in colombia heights also e talks about sherman avenue and New Hampshire avenue. My parents over here, thats where we lived in that neighborhood growing up. And so mine was the next generation in knowing what the history was and its all stuff you read about in books and learn from school from your parents. And the idea that there are segregated schools. I grew up in washington, d. C. , and attended Public Schools in which i started at Stephens Elementary School in foggy bottom. The first school for blacks in d. C. And then on to john eaton Elementary School, alice Deal High School on wilson. But we were all fully intergrated, black, white, latino, also intergrated fairly deeply along income lines as well. And, you know, what we knew was that brown had happened and, therefore, changed the world around the way Public Education was organized. In d. C. , at times you had two separate School Systems operating and so we had alonzos point, a lot of schools located in very close proximity to each other which are hard to understand y do we have so many of them . Where y. Are so many close together . Thats because we had the black school here and white school here and, you know, never should the students meet. So when he to have the two systems operating. But the story is this is going to create the opportunities for everyone. Ways a b. Changing some of the systemic imbalance in the way schools were funded and supported. And i think thats the world that i grew up in. I think were going to talk more about is that really what happened . Thats a great segue to our next question. I want to move to brown versus board of education, the decision happens. And some of us were aware. Some were involved and engaged in the community. They were helping to drive this movement. So for you and your families, what did that decision mean . What was the hope and expectation . What was going to change in their lives . One thing that we hoped is that we would have a better opportunity attend schools that had more resources for our kids. At least thats what my parents hope was. So when win the to central with this group and, yes, we did have a lot more resources. They had this Amazing Library that i just couldnt stay out of. And because we had never seen a library like that. All our books were up to date. And so i mean did it provide the resource thats our parents wanted us to have. It was tough. We were invisible sort of. Teachers wouldnt call on us. We will to rely on those resources because we were not being taught well. And oftentimes we would only in a class, only black kid in a class. And they just ignored us. You are know oushgs kids made fun of us and talked about us. And every single day for three years i got called the n word. And im pretty light too. One drop. And every single day for three years the black kids met at the corner of 18th and park to walk home together so we wouldnt get beat up. I was telling jen earlier, i called my cousin who is onest little rock nine last week to talk to her about my speaking on this panel. And she said that they had the crowds. They had the fellow escort. But they were invisible as well. She said to make sure that people understand that because brown, you know, became law, you know, the decision was made and we would have equal education that didnt mean what we h i struggled through high school. I came from a Junior High School where people really cared about what happened to us. And everybody was involved in our educational experience. And we were the top students of that school. Which is onest reasons the 130 of us were picked to go to central. And our parents were teachers and preachers and civil rights activists and we failed at central. We were not taught. We will to figure out how to be a part of that school and how to be a part of the educational experience. I think i counted down from tenth grade to graduation. Just counted down. I might as well have had one. But all that said, we did have the Resources Available to us that we had not had at the black schools. We did have the books that were updated so that we could self teach. Our parents that were teachers did help us. We did have the big reputation of having graduated from Central High School which probably helped us when we were all applying for colleges. So i mean the benefits certainly were there but the inside story was difficult for us. How long did it take for things to get better for stephens at that school . You know, sen strcentral is black now. Its changed. But i think that when they did the 40th anniversary, there was conversation about the fact that central was now 90 black. And how that was going to look on the media. So i think they highlighted white kids and which i thought was just tacky. But, you know . But it took many years. I was talking to my sisters friends who are three years behind us. I was saying well we had a rough time at central. And she said we did, too. So we know three years hadnt changed. And i remember one of the time i really got in trouble my father was the first black assistant superintendent of Little Rock School district. And my brother is brown skin and were light skinned and nobody ever put us together. And a teacher was mean to me. And i remember saying to her, do you know who my father is . Youre going to be in big trouble. He probably hired you. And my dad told me not to do that but that was the way we had to survive. You know . We needed a hook. We needed some way to get through it. So it took a long time. I mean i dont we had a facebook conversation going on recently and i think the classes of up to 1975 were complaining about how they were treated. I graduated in 69. So they were really so several years at least until 75. I dont know beyond that. Dr. Smith, same question you to. What were the hopes and expectations . Yeah, again, i cant give you a really clear answer of what i remember from that time. Because i our family lived in pennsylvania after i left bruce, right after the desegregation began. We lived in pennsylvania. So i went to School System that was already intergrated but really wasnt that much of an issue. I remember keeping touch with my friends back here in d. C. , some of them went to wilson and other places. And who were telling me about the racial tension that has been eluded to here. And the incidents that happened in the schools and the white flight, of course, this massive white flight that came after the brown v. Board of education decision. Where what i got from some of my friends, too, d. C. Was governed by a House District committee. And there were a number of congress members, mostly from the south, who really just in flated and exaggerated everything racial incident that occurred especially at cardoza and some of the other schools where the white students staged walkouts. And so that the my impression and, again, there just an impression, but that, you know, a the love the racial tension that lead to the white flight was also to a certain extent exacerbated by politics, political figures from congress who were interfering in d. C. Politics. So thats my sense of what was happening at the time. Thank you. Yeah. And so then, you know, fast forward to a d. C. Where i grew up and went to school in, terms of opportunity, we certainly had access to schools that blacks didnt have access to in prior generations. I think through my experience, i had great access to great schools. One thing that is really interesting is dr. Smith talked about white flight and that was both present and also teachers. When people when people were told this is where you work now, there was, you know, a group of teachers decided that wasnt where they were going to work. Which i think changed the dynamics of the School System. I went to school thats also had predominant predominantly black teachers. I think that made for a very different mix in the School System and for manufacture the schools and for many of the students. And while there was a great amount of diversity in the schools in terms of the students, there was i mean even while ways growing up there was still white flight leaving the city. It was changing the makeup of the student body. It was interesting and unique to have a big City School District that was increasing its percentage of africanamerican leaders and teachers. Most of my teachers and all of our principals at our schools were africanamerican. I think that in a lot of ways almost recreated some of the types of schools that many black people before me had gone to school in when they had gone schools where the teachers were black, leadersst school were blacks, leaders of the School Systems were black and the students were black n this case you had more diverse student population. The leadership was predominantly africanamerican. I think that made for a Different School district. The other thing that i began to observe as i got older as a student was that wasnt what was going on everywhere in d. C. There were some schools that were fairly you could sort of draw a line north and south across the city as to where thats what happening. But in other places in the city that, was not happening. I think the questions around resources and accountability i think that there were issues in place thats were not getting the amount after tension they needed to be getting. For a lot of folks that wasnt happening. A lot of the things you talked about, white flight and segregation, those are a lot of the the topics. I know miss ward youre very much involved in this whole discussion around Educational Opportunity and School Choice and so when we fast forward to today where are we today as it relates . In my experience, i see a lot of changes. I see a lot of movement thats come about in the last 20 years. But i also see that there needs to be more movement. The simple fact that little rock Central High School is predominantly black surrounded by a white neighborhood. It disturbs me. You know . So why do kids not come to this particular school . When you go to central, there is this will little group of 18 kids that are predominantly white and thent rest is central. Its almost like two schools. And so every time i go over there i ged mad. Where are the black kids in ap classes . And why are the black kids in the mobile home things outside for school . If you go to one sued of the school, at the endst day there are black parents picking up black kids or black kids walking home f you go to the other side, the white kids are being picked up. So it disturbs me that we havent gone any further than that. I think i see a lot more schools more kids getting into environment thats are vie ders. Mo diverse. More kids getting into schools that are serving them better. My daughter is in a Charter School here in d. C. Where she is thriving in visual arts and art and those kind of things. Those are her interests. Shes looking to whats going on. I live in arkansas and they still have so far to go. As far as what theyre doing with kids, black kids and white kids and them still bussing kids to White Communities outside of the areas where they live. Kids are just really struggling. I live in the inner city. I run a church program. Those kids cant read at all. They come over, 40 of them every single day to come eat and we sit we give them books and we give them little bibles and they ask us to read them to them. They cannot read. That just makes me angry and which is not the word i was going to use but it makes me really angry and its church, so i can reign it in. But those are the things i think we really have to Pay Attention to, what is continuing to go, did brown fix it all. Are we in schools that are equal or are we just in Public Schools . Ive said for many years how it is here. He said it, too. We just keep our kids in these buildings because we fought to get in the buildings, you know, and that just makes me angry. And so, you know, i think that we have to continue to go where were going. I think we have to continue to support changes in the educational environment and the School Reform and such. And im hopeful. Im optimistic. Im probably the most positive person in the world. Once i get past going to Central High School, im glad i so i think we have a good chance to move forward and to keep the get the brown decision a reality in this country. I think well do it. But i think we cant stop and we cant stop thinking about it and we have to keep moving and we have to keep working with the children. Thank you. In terms of where we are, i still live in the area but now i live in rockville, maryland, so you new york city, i guess you could say that my wife and i have made an educational choice for ourson by living in rockville, maryland, because he has graduated from Richard Montgomery high school and going to college. And of course we are really strong Public School system in Montgomery County and so we and my students at Montgomery College are products of that Public School system, which is very strong. Here in d. C. , of course, its a different story. But i would venture to say that the discussions that we have about the state of education in this country are symptom at irk of broader, deeper issues in our society as a whole. That have to do with the criminal Justice System, that have to do with our national priorities, about how much we spend on defense versus how much we spend on transportation, infrastructure and social programs and so until we can really grapple with some of those deeper problems, i fear that were going to continue to have a lot of these discussions about what to do with our Education System because we northeast that has to do with our society as a whole. So i really ive been i dont want to go off on too much of a tangent very active with the peace movement, with movement that deal with social transformation. Im not talking about bangbang revolution, things like that. What im talking about is what dr. King was talking about. I hope you all will go back and read chaos or community . When he talked about the aboved community and spirit. I think we all need to go back and read that very carefully. As i think we were talking about this earlier in the green room. On the one hand, the brown in the decision is a certainly a significant step forward. It has removed a set of legal barriers, things that people were legally allowed to do to each other that we can objectively agree are not good. Theyre bad. I think thats harder is for people to have the willingness to do the daytoday grinding, hard work to make things better. Ok. So we removed some barriers. We clearly see it in our daytoday lives, people are willing to do other horrible things to each other. So we can say ok now people can go to the same schools. Its a different fight to make sure that all of the schools that we allow anyones kids to go to are good. Right. I think thats one were not ready to take on and drive each day. Thats important. Were going to make sure you cant bar children because of the color of their skin from attending school but youre not going to ino ensure that children are not going to learn. I think that thats a longer daytoday, you know, thing to do which requires people paying attention, holding themselves, their elected officials and others accountable to making change. I think especially for people in my generation, some of this is recognizing you have opportunities that other people did not and now you got to make a choice. Do you utilize those opportunities to help another group of people have opportunities that happens you dont, or do you simply cash in and say im glad that i have opportunities and im going to make and people have to make that personal decision, and i think that when you reflect on the sacrifices that lots of people have made over the years to open the door of opportunity more and more for others, i think the question we need to be asking ourselves on a daily basis is are we still involved in that exercise or are we involved in were here now, lets just every man for himself. Theres a lot of challenge. Theres a lot of promise with brown and im not convinced that every day i see people leaning into the wheel of lets continue to push that further out there so that all children in all schools are getting a great education. Because one of these is the difference between whats a good school and everyone having access to a good school but in the school being good for your child. I think you know thats where questions of choice come in. Sometimes a school could be onnively good but might not be the right school for your child. Right now were having that conversation. Right now were wanting the schools to be good. I think theres lots being done. A lot of folks sacrificed to get us to this point. I think we have to put one foot in front of the other to make sure fights and struggles are maintained. Well sure. One of the things that my dad said to me three or four days after i start central i think i got off the 14yearold in me and said im not going back. My twin can go and everybody else but im not. My dad said to you, you have a responsibility to go to central, to do well, and for future generations. You have two younger sisters. What happens if you just decide youre not going to go there. You know. What happens to them. You know because you have to be there in order to make changes. That has guide med my entire life. You know, i really believe we got to be involved. You gotta be one of those persons that says all right, im going to do what i can to make a difference and i think thats what weve all tried to do is to make a difference. Remember what my dad said. You going back. Based on what yall have shared, the Current Conditions and environment and education is the challenges are overwhelming or they can be overwhelming. Where would you start . I heard a number of ideas expressed already, but if you had to try to figure out a way to make some dynamic change around Educational Opportunity, where would you start . Yeah. So you mentioned earlier, i was on the board of education in d. C. We need to start with people. We need push ourselves and our friends, everybody we know. You ask people do you care about education, b everybody b says yes. Nobody says its not important. Ask them the next question. What are you doing to demonstrate you think its important and to make it better . Because when you ask that question people look at you like, i think my mom is i think we have to be pushing ourselves and our friends, our families and our colleagues to have an answer to the question and be acting on it. If it is, in fact, important, know what youre doing to make it better and to demonstrate its important to others, because otherwise, like this is just an individual exercise where kpeem say, oh, its important but i got other stuff to do. Then we arent making the dined of progress we need to have. I think its less of a we need to fix this policy, its how to get people engaged. Were going to hear from dr. Perry and other folks later on. There are lots of available loosings. Every single one of those things needs lots of people to deliver results for children. Dr. Smith. My view on education is really kind of an outsider and a layman, because what ive been, in addition to teaching history, most involved with is criminal justice reform. In maryland at a state level and montgome Montgomery County at the county level, i was in annapolis to testify for reform legislation that would give Greater Transparency to complaints in the police procedure, and were also working with having civilians on the Police Review boards and also bail bond reform, but i think that a lot of what is true in the criminal Justice System is also true with the educational system. Our criminal Justice System is broken. Its a broken system. I think the same thing is true of our educational system. I think its a broken system. And i think that you should go back and look at what earle warren said in his majority opinion in brown versus board of ed kwags about Public Schools. He said Public Schools are heart and soul of a Democratic Society. Public schools basically shape the citizens of and i gal tarn Democratic Society. The job of Public Education is to bring Children Together and to bring people together and its not doing that. It hasnt done that. I think the reason why were having all these discussions about what this kind of school is, what that kind of cool is, is the Public Education system as a whole has really not delivered prorm. So just as the system of criminal justice reform, you know, has a school to prison pipeline, has overpolicing of schools, has this kind of coercive force mentality and education in education and in the prisons, i think we have to start looking at how do we transform peoples mind and spirits . Now, thats not just a question of going to church. Thats a big part of it, but part of it has to do with psychological services. Part of it has to do with healing peoples spirits. Part of it has to do with reechlg into peoples hearts. Those are the kinds of questions i think we need to ask of our schools just as we ask about our prisons and our courts. Thank you. Well, i look around this room and i see ed choice and i see education reform and i say bale and i see all these organizations if i missed anybody, i missed your tag for the 20 years that ive been involved to make sure that kids were able to get the education that these folks, you need more. You need to stand with them and one of the things that i did 20 years ago was decided to stand with them. These people care about kids and what happens to kids and i think going forward, if we stand with the these organizations who have had spend so much time over the years supporting sfamlies and children, then i think that were we got part of the thing won. Somebody told me a long time ago about the battle in the legislature and i was saying, oh, im through with this, you know, im mad because we lost, you know, and i dont want to do this anymore, because i dont like being on the losing side. And somebody said to me, clint said to me, if you give up, youre letting the kids that you think you care so much about down. If you stop, then would you be doing the same thing that others have done . And i was real mad at him but i had to go home and really think about what my priority is was at the time and it continues to be is serving children and serving families and making sure that whatevers out there, whether its info from ed choice or info from bale, i want to know it so i can pass it on to families, and i think thats ultimately in the next course youre going to hear a lot more about it but i think ultimately thats what you have to do. You have to be involved. So as we prepare to move into questions and ill ask folks if you have questions to start moving to the microphones and lining up. But it seems to me one of the key components to having success around Educational Opportunity and School Choices, it goes back to the parents do you believe that weve got a sound or good structure for informing parents about what Educational Opportunity is there, helping them make good decisions about education, what are the pieces in place or that should be in place that helps parents navigate through this new world of education. I mean, sort of no. We weve got this i know, to the Doctors Point about the system being broken, parents are an important part of childrens upbringing and their formal education as a School Student and still to this day, schools dont do a very good job recognizing that and leveraging the parent ultimately you got to know what a parents role or responsibility is. What the schools role and responsibility is, what the childs role and responsibility is. I taught Elementary School for a decade and people always find a way to blame it on the parents and have a long list of things parents are doing. We tend to actually not tell parents what we need them to do. Its hashed for them to figure it out if we dont have the school side articulate that. I think what were seeing in several schools who have been successful with families have been really clear, these are your responsibilities, x, y, and z. Here are the things the children are going to do and heres what were going to do. Its about relationship, and relationships that work require some accountability. I think in a lot of placing we have not been invested in that. Sadly i think some of that is a byproduct of the you dont tell parents whats needed of them, you can always blame them. The accountability door swings both ways. If you tell parents how to leverage accountability when they show up to the school and start demanding of you the things they need you to do to serve their child, i think thats something people dont want to happen. Weve creating a position in schools sometimes are quite hostile to parents and send them a covert message that they arent and werent needed in this. Clearly, i believe that parents should be a partner in the educational process. Also arkansas parents for School Choice and also the Parent Information Center of erarkansa. So im really, really dedicated to bringing parents in and making them understand that they are a part i used to tell parents when we were in d. C. And we had thousands of parents involved in our efforts to get the Scholarship Program passed, and i used to tell them all the time, if you dont speak for your child, who will . And they would say to me, but they dont want to hear me. And i would go, but then make yourself heard. We taught them how to use their voices and we taught them how to speak up and make their voices heard and to make their problems known. I mean, that is something that i believe i really dont like it when parents are blamed because theres not an effort a lot of times to bring parents involved in their childrens education. A parent told me recently i went to my Childs School and asked what her test scores were because she was moving out of the city. The teacher said you dont need to know these. Well send them to the new school and the parents but i want to know. This teacher refused to the point and said, she called and well go through a process to get test scores. It was the most unreal moment because it rang in every part of this country talking to parent, thats how they feel. They feel that theyre not welcome, theyre not a part of it, they shouldnt have any investment other than going on field trips or bringing papers, supplies to the school. And thats something im im from an area where the village raised me. You know, my teachers, my parents, the neighbors, the church, the store down street, they raised me, and i believe that thats something that we have to do more of. Thank you, panel. So lets move to questions. Back in the days of segregation, we had more of a sense of community between parents and teachers that doesnt thats been lost, unfortunately. Now, there are other things that have been gained but we lost that. Thank you. So lets start with our first question over here on the right. Thank you for your amazing comments and for sharing your personal stories. My names Jennifer Mizrahi and im the president of respectability and we advocate for young beam disabilities and weve been particularly concerned about young people of color and their failure to achieve high school diplomas, even if you dont have the racial component, only 65 of students with disabilities complete high school and only 7 complete college. I know that Charter Schools do not have the same requirements for protecting students with disabilities, but they also are offering some exciting promise with the mackay scholarship in florida, for example, so i wanted to ask each of you to please reflect on students of color with stabilities in this new era. What can be done to ensure that they dont enter the school to prison pipeline given that today, 750,000 of the people who are incarcerated in america are today people with disabilities. Id like to answer that. My sister actually is a special education teacher, and so shes been really encouraging me to learn more about students with disability. In arkansas we have brandnew Scholarship Program called success Scholarship Program for children with disabilities. And one of the things that ive been charged to do is to encourage africanamerican families to apply. They were not getting many applications from africanamerican families, and so we went into the communities and held some meetings and actually took people over to apply, took applications with us. We see theres a great need. Hair etta, my twin sister, has been teaching for 30 years. She retired this week. With 10 kids graduating all africanamerican from high school with diplomas. She worked really hard and stayed two extra years to make sure that they would graduate. Their graduation was an amazing highlight not only for her but for the school. They got awards that she made sure one of her kids got a twoyear scholarship to college. And these were kids she taught shes a selfcontained teacher. These were kids that have been before now not considered much in the educational environment. And so i see a lot of states its kind of backwards. A lot of states are passing programs for special needs kids because it keeps them from having to deal with anything else, so they pass the program to special needs kid because they dont want to be identified as not taking care of them. It works for us because then our kids can get scholarships and attend the schools they want to attend and which often times leads i dont know about other states. But arkansas is one of the few states where kids dont get a certificate of completion. They actually get a diploma and they have to have just as many credits as everybody else. But it takes an engaged, involved teacher to make sure that they have those, so i think its something thats close on our hearts and our minds. Dr. Smith, did you want to ok. Yeah, i mean, i think first of all, we have to push everyones whos involved in education in any way, shape, or form, to push everyone on all. All children because all is everyone. I thinkontimes we get caught in this game of well, these children are doing well, these the conversation should be about all children. The moment we allow it to be about something less than all children, we leave kids behind of all various sorts. We think about in particular children with disabilities in gem, that pushes us to the question of are schools actually designed right now, being held accountable right now to meeting childrens needs . In our society we lose track of that. We think about schools going to do a set of things for children and thats what its going to do it. If you happen to be in a school whose bandwidth is doing enough, then thats great. In some cases some children more, some children need different. There are a lot of elements to that. We were actually having this conversation last week over dinner at mire parents house. My brotherinlaw coaches a Softball Team for students with disabilities at his high school but its kind to give kids who otherwise wouldnt have a chance to participate, to have it. I played sports in high school, my kids play sports. I think thats valuable but we need to be pushing our schools to say children node a certain set of things and its our responsibility as adults to make sure they get those things and it might look different. It might be harder than we want to work to get to them but if were a really in this for all the children, its not negotiateble, can we give less . No, we cant. We get into budget conversations where were taking the Resource Pool and dividing it it up mockst everything we have. We need to push hard on that because often times the people with the strongest advocates end up getting what they want and need and the people whose advocacy isnt as strong dont. Weve got to be thinking that way and if were not thinking about childrens needs then were doing something thats going to help many, if not most, but were knowingly leaving children behind. I think weve got to force people to confront that on a daily basis. And i can tell you from personal Family Experience that Montgomery County schools, as advanced as they are, could do more to deal with special needs students and people with personal disabilities. Also i would suggested that you take a look at a really deep book by Brian Stevenson called just mercy which is based on his experiences as a courtroom criminal justice lawyer and mostly in the south but in california, too, and a lot of his clients who got involved in the criminal Justice System were people who had gone through abusive situations as children. Who had gone through a high School Situations where their needs were not being properly met and then they got involved in the school to prison pipeline. So you know, the School System and the educational system and the Correction System are not really that separate. And theyre part of a continuum for many young people. So again, you know, rehabilitation rather than punishment, Development Rather than coercion, love rather than anger, i think all those are factors that we need to think about not only in our children who are in the school but once they have the misfortune to get involved in the system, to think about what happens to them in the bad event that they get incars rated. Because all of this is a part of formation of human beings and individuals and changing society. Thank you. Mr. Taylor. I was sitting here and i mean, thank you all for coming out today, but so im struggling with something and i think this will get to the crux of some of the issues that were confronting. I was reminded i was in high school i grew up in Fort Lauderdale florida and there was a desegregation effort about the time i was coming into middle school where we began bussing africanamerican students into majority institutions, predominantly white institutions for the purposes of integrating. There was a big battle. Weve seen those in k through 12 systems. I remember asking i was a pretty interesting high School Students in ninth school and i remember asking this white woman who i respected quite a bit, why did she transfer her kids out of a school that people like me were coming to. And her response was it still sticks with me and ill tell you where. She said i appreciate the grand vision but my ultimate responsibility is to my children. On an individual level, my job is to ensure that my kids get the best education that they can get. I only get one shot and thats what i owe them. And to the extent they are shipping people into this school and i love this they are shipping people, you know, this school and its going to bring down the overall rigor and create behavioral problems and she went through this whole thing. It struck me as very honest but it hurt me. She didnt realize what she was saying that people like me better net negative. A group of my friends, africanamericans, successful, black lawyers, doctors, and indian chiefs. We sat around and talked about where our children were in school. Interesting. All of us are in d. C. But all of our kids were either in private schools or in the best and most selective Public Schools. We all looked around and said, god, were doing the very thing that we have complained about people doing for years. And i was shocked when one of the mothers said to me i asked her, so whats it all about. And she almost verbatim repeated the words of mrs. Wynn, the white woman who i judged who essentially said i have to do whats in the best interest of my child and the other people have to figure out whats pest for their children. How do we rec sthiel when we talk in terms of background versus board of education. Thats a tough one because we all owe a duty of responsibility. I see the beftsds of integration but to your point, there are Better Schools there. Theyre the better resources, the children behaved better, etc. How do you reconcile it . I really had to look at myself in the mirror and say im doing the very thing i accused these other horrible racist people of doing. Im just doing it amongst my people. It always comes up with me and i always because i dont want to deal that, i always say, well, two of my kids went to Public School and only one went to private school or Charter School. I think thats really difficult. I think we have grown into parents who want to have some sayso in how our kids are educated. So i dont think you should look at it as a voice from racist parents. I think you should look at it as a growth of what we can what were able to do now. Remember, i said, you know, one of the things that ive had trouble doing is convincing parents that they have a sayso in their childrens education, that they can, you know, ask for certain things or they can send their children to certain schools. I think, you know sh we have to even though that was really, really racist and we all went into that where kids were pulled out of school because we went there even as recently as my own children going to school. And but i think we have to kind of look at it a different way i dont think we should look at it as you know, continuing or duplicating what they say. I think we should just look at it as were more informed about what were able does that make sense what were able to say now. My kids when they were bussing kids from little rock out to the country and to go to these white schools because they needed black kids in these white schools, i remember asking my father, white people were moving further out of little rock, further and because the kids were coming to these schools, and i remember asking my parents. I was about 14. I was pretty i said if we go to their schools and they take their kids out of their schools and go to other schools, what does that mean . And he said, well, it just means that theyre not being thoughtful or theyre being racist. And so we do understand that. But i think nowdays if we dont say i want my kids in a Better School and we dont go out and get those kids in a Better School, you know, i think that were missing out on all the information that weve been given to have access to Better Schools. My kids, my kids all went to Different Schools. I got up in the morning and took my kids to 50 Different Schools 6789 i have five kids. People would say, are you crazy . You leave at about 6 00 in the morning. I go yeah, but nigel needs this, an needs this. We pick the school based on the needs of the child versus how convenient it was going to be for me who took them all the time. My husband never took them, but i took them. He took them sometimes, but so i think thats where we are now. So it kind of, in my opinion, you know, you can forget about that and just keep moving forward. Im going to take a slightly different ok. Some people who know me know where im going now. Especially my mom. Look, so some of this is you do have to you got to first of all, make the right choice for you and your child. Im not here to tell anybody not to do that. Right. I always do that and i tell everybody i talk to to do that. That said, were supposed to be smart enough to challenge things that people put out in the universe and i think sometimes we take a pass on thinking harder and thinking smarter about things. Case inminute so i went through d. C. Public schools my entire academic career. People were saying if you dont get them out of dsc by third grade, theyre not going to college. I went off and had a successful career, went there school, went to morehouse college. Ive done pretty well. My wife went to stanford. People were saying then it wasnt true. Theyre saying it now and it aint true, either. I think part of the reason why some of these things are sticking is we dont challenge it. People saying, if you dont go to this or that school, its not going to work out. We could have a reasoned discussion about why a school might be better for a particular child but we cant let we have to challenge sometimes racest notions that this school is not going to get your child ready. My kids are in the same schools i went to. People i know say you got to go to private school. I say look, you can do that but nothing has changed in their experience going to that school like if its a Better School for thm, great. But the school theyre in right now is a great school and im watching kids thrive every single day. I also think about the lesson my children learn when i put them in that school and i show up at that school to make sure that the school is meeting their needs and the other kids theyre in class with, because i want them to know like this stuff was hard. The school wasnt magically good. People have worked hashed to make them better each year. Were having the same conversation with the pto at my sons high school where the principal wants to move ninth graders into stricter, more advanced courses. Were going to make sure everybody gets the rigorous course work so that everybody has the opportunity to pursue hon ost in a. P. I think theres not enough of us willing to push back on some of these things people say that just arent supported by the facts. Thats what bothers me. People say stuff all the time that arent supported by actual facts and we let it go. I think weve got to push harder against that. Weve got to tell our stories and our truths. At the end of the day, if youre convinced for some octoberive reason and that schools truly better for your child, great. But some of this also gets to be about my children are now in middle and high school and we start in Elementary School but my wife and i talk about that. The schools are good for our kids and there are a lot of other children in each school who are benefitting because were here there pushing the schools to be better for everyone. Ive had hashed conversations with principals and teachers saying whats holding you back . Very to go and pull all the data and say the out of boundary kids perform better than any kid. Stop trying to sthael and convince parents to scare other parents out of the school or tell people not to come here. I think that a lot more of us have to be willing to take on that daily fight and it it is a fight. I mean, sometimes people look up and go, oh, here he comes again. Thats just what its going to be. At least people have a sense around me, dont come with that weak Public School is going to get it done, because im going to keep it super real for you. Other parents are here and learning. What were unwittingly doing is were also pushing that message to our kids who are going to be the next gen race of parents who say to their kids, if you go to neighborhood school, i dont know. You got to go here or here and thats not helping anybody. I think we need to push back against that. When i go backs and read earl warrens opinion in brown vs. Board of education, and as i mention, the heart of his argument is the role of Public Schools in a Democratic Society and then i listen to a lot of the debates that are going on today, it sounds very idealistic. It sounds very aspirational. And yet i think it describes and it is aspirational. It describes a world that could be. If we had a deep enough faith in Public Education. And so you know, my suggestion would be a lot of the policy makers who are engaged in these debates about education in this country go back and read what earl warren wrote in 1954. Thank you. Yes. Please. On this side. Hello. Hi. Just try want to thank you so much for your time. My names isabell gonzalez and im finishing my masters at Catholic University in america. I came today because i took a class in education in the developing world. So the class really touches on aspects in developing countries why are they struggling in education and that can sbrech applied to some of the School Districts in the United States. So i really sympathize with your comments on family and how important it is for a childs education, because at least for me, i know that my parents sent me to private schools for the majority of my life, you be i know that it was their support and their patience with me that really hemmed me excel and just know that even if i failed a spelling test like in fourth grade, i knew i wasnt going to get punished. I was going to get sympathy and support, like how can we help you succeed, things like that. So im wondering what is your experience with that . What are the incentives we can put in place to encourage more parental involvement in a childs education. Not just that but to communicate with teachers and ensure not only the view that its important to put your child first. But i also think that as a society its important to see things in the form of a common good. How can my child benefit but also what can i dah . I think somebody mentioned it what can i do to contribute to society . How can i be involved . And up think somebody already mentioned that. So basically, the incentives, what have you seen that works . Well, at his school he and other parents are really involved. I think talking to parents and meeting with parents, those who can do that, those of us who have those type of skills or organizations continuing to support parents and making parents feel like they can be a part of the childs education and the programs that i work with, we encourage parents to come along with the children and through the years, ive seen lots and lots of parents who were wanted wanting to become wanting to be involved by didnt know how to. So sometimes its just a matter of sitting down and talking to them and making them understand what their role could be, you know. Now, when my first child went to school, my mom said be involved in your childs education. So i went and sat in the back of the room and scared the heck out of the teacher because she thought i was spying on her. But i had a conversation with her i went back to my mother and she said be involved. Do something that helps, you know. Be innovative. What can you bring to this teacher and her class room . I worked for an international organization, so we have lots of people that were from other countries and id bring them over, theyd bring different foods and we had these Great International days, but i had to be taught, i had to be told that to be involved, you need to do this and this. I think you said it earlier or did we we have to tell people who we need them to do. So i think the schools and the parents have to Work Together to make sure that everybodys on the same page about what can be involved and it is a lot of pushback in school. Generally, you know, parents are not they dont feel as welcome, so i think we have to figure out a way to make parents feel that they belong as part of their childs education. We actually hadful workshops that taught parents how to talk to teachers. Wed do role playing. Wed bring people in to talk to parents about how they interact with their teachers. Occasionally wed sit in on meetings between parents and administrators . If you get people understanding that they are saying the same thing, the bottom line is, everybody wants to help the child and but instead of getting into an argument about you, what youre saying or what youre saying, were going to intervene and say, you know, thats just what that parent just said. So i think that those people that are involved in education reform or in education, period, need to be aware that they can play a role until helping parents get involved. But i think thats an important step in this next era on this next education journey is to make sure that we again are involving parents, like our parents were involved in the childrens education that were serving now. Yeah. We need to consider that parents always have the toomgs, knowledge, and skills, sort of thinking about parents sometimes the way we think of students. Parents are different. Sometimes they need more information. A couple of years weighing we did a checklist on here are the things that as a parent you and should be asking your childs teacher or principal to help track progress of your child and that the school is doing the things it need to be doing to improve. Were not here to say a schools not doing well, you should abandon it. But you should be asking important, critical questions,s but most parents like i know some of these things because im a teacher. I always out myself to my childrens teachers. I tell them, hey, i was a teacher. I know how all this works. A lot of parents dont have that when i was an Elementary Schoolteacher, i would give parents a sheet at the beginning of the year saying this is how its going to work. My expectation of you is that you sign that youve seen theyve done the three assignments. You dont have to check that its right. Just sient. But if i get this tomorrow and its not signed, im calming you, because youve agreed to do that and made it simple and easy for parents. They know, hey, if im calling they didnt do what theyre supposed to be doing. But ive made it clear to them. I think v weve acknowledged that their kbpgss for their children are high. But how do you get there . For many parents theyre unaware. The schools are sending them feedback, things are going well. You feel good about how your child is doing but theyre milgsing a lot of the major milestones and benchmarks on the way to put them on the path where they want to be. But by the time they actually figure out that theyve missed automatic these things, its too late. So school is sort of laying it out for parents, here are the mile posts you need to check. You know, yeah, if college is part of your childs plan, then you need to be clear about algebra in eighth grade. If you dont take algebra in eighth grade, youre off course. We can fix that. But when youre a senior in high school could you let a child take two math classes in one year even though they were sequential because if they couldnt take them both that year they couldnt graduate. But thats a byproduct of having not told parents this is what you need to be doing. I think we need to be mindful about are we giving them the schools and knowledge and skills to support that along the way . A lot of this is people dont know. People act as if everybody else should know. A lot of us are beneficiaries of a parent who did know who showed us the way and im going to make sure that let parents check off, i already know this, i already know that, fine. But were asking them the question. A lot of times we dont tell them and then we act surprised when they dont know. I would suggest and again speaking as a nun expert, but i suggest one of the things that would be useful to look at is teacher dissatisfaction. I understand that here in the district theres been a very high number of people who have resigned not just at the end of the school year but in the middle of the school year, in december an january who just walked off the job. To me the thats incomprehensible. I talked to some of my colleagues, i know at least three people who are currently teaching at Montgomery College formerly with Montgomery County Public Schools. Ones a biologist, i think one teaches chemistry. I asked someone, what motivated you to come leave Public Schools and come to Montgomery College. A lot of theres a lot of Different Reasons but one consistent thing is administrative paperwork. I feel overall whemd. They dont have time to devote to preparation, to devote to interacting with the students because of regulations much of which comes from the federal government. That they have to take care of. And all kinds of forms that have to be filled out, especially when theres special needs students or whatever. So i think we need to really look at what kind of environments teachers have to function in. Thats a really good point. Thank you for your question. I serve as the chair of the board of a local Charter School. That is something that i find to be pretty overwhelming in terms of the amount of paperwork and the reporting and i understand that metrics and tracking and Holding People accountable is critical but whats the right balance so that students can get sufficient attention from the teachers. So over here, next question. Id like to echo my thank you as well. My name is john t. Wolfe jr. Im in the University System of maryland, and as i listen to you give this briefing on brown v board of education, ive reflected back on a career thats coming to an end in 29 days. 52 years in this business. Starting out as a Public School Language Arts teacher in the Public Schools in the city of chicago. And having been a twotime president of an hbcu, two hbcus. Im intrigued by it. They seem to focus on the same issues except the point that mr. Smith made. And its rare that the discussions really delve into that and he talked about the criminal Justice System and the socioeconomic and the political. And all of you alluded to resources, and ill single out one in Montgomery County. He mentioned mr. Smith mentioned the good Public School system. Some of you may know that its working on an Excellent Institution of Higher Education in if university of shady grove, which 15 or 20 years ago was one building. Not even really one building. It was a warehouse shared. Its five buildings now. So Montgomery County is committed to education from prek to the ph. D. The question i have related to all of that is, if you could have one resource regardless of how you obtain it, to bring about a change that you have articulated thats needed as it relate not just to k12 and prek and i think the lady asked the question about disability that is a mounting question. Because its not just physical. Its mental as well. And witness what happened at college park earlier this week. What one resource, if you could get it, regardless of how you get it, would you say you would use to bring about the kind of changes that you have articulated about education, not just in washington, d. C. , because both of you several of you mentioned educational reform. To bring about the kind of change that was alluded to in the warren opinion but also in the issues of education for the citizens of the United States of america gi the founding who are called the Founding Fathers . What would that resource be . One resource. Thank you. Who would like to start . [ laughter ] you know, my whole thing is parents being able to pick the schools where their children attend, so im a big scholarship proponent and i mean, i believe that if i had the money, the resources, that i would make provisions for every child to go to any school that their parent chose. I believe strongly that we are our childrens first teachers, so we know our children better than anybody else. And i think thats what i would want to do. I think it would be such incredible thing to be able to talk to parents who say my child is at a school where these thriving and i was able to send them there. So i really believe that each i do believe that it should be controlled and overseen by states and local municipalities. I mean, i really do believe that. But i believe its something that will be incredible in education. Dr. Smith . One of the things that brian stevensson says in his book just mercy towards the end of the book, he says we live in a broken criminal Justice System, but its not just the criminal Justice System thats broken. Its society thats broken. Now, this is going to sound per impossible to achieve or pie in the sky or idealistic, but i think as we have these conversations which we definitely need to do about how to improve and move forward in education, i think they should be part of some more fundament kinds of discussions about what happened in North Carolina when they have moral tuesdays and what does that mean. And what are the roles of clergy people. If i was to say one central resource in the Public Schools, i would say to pay a lot more attention on both spiritual and psychological resources that has to do with getting kids to perhaps reach back into their communities and play i mean we live in a secular society. We have a secular educational system. When i teach in community college, i say to my students, i say look, it doesnt matter what church or synagogue or temple or ash ram that you will go. You cant live without spiritual values. And i said those of you especially who go out in education, i hope you talk to your students like that. I am not telling you what church i go to. Its none of your business. But you need to look back into your families, roots and cultural communities whether they are buddhist or muslim or jewish or whatever and reach back and get sustenance and tre strength from there. You can get a good job. Learn to be a police officer, to be a School Counselor or to go onto the university of maryland or howard or au. But you have to look at what is inside your heart. And that is part of what perhaps some of our teachers may tend to forget sometimes. So those are the kinds of things that i think we need to bring back. And thats what we had in the segregated system. We had a lot of teachers with those old fashion values. I remember one lady who said my students are all brilliant. She was proud of us. And so, you know, i think there has to be, we have to try to bring that back. And so when teachers interact with students, especially when they interact with parents, they have a special, very special kind of role to play. And the same is true whether the person is a psychological counselor in the parole system or whether a person is a teacher. They have paperwork, regulations, people looking over their shoulder. So if there was one thing that i would like to see more of, i mean, again, i said i had a personal experience. I mean, it has to do with one of my children in the schools who had a special need and so we really need very much in Montgomery County Public Schools. She is really moving forward now. She is sprouting wings and flying. But there was a time when i really wanted to see the School System a lot more than they did. And well wrap up with you. I probably shouldnt have gone last then. So one, it is going to be a two parter. A magic wand for the express purpose of putting everyone, everyone who talks about education, claims to care about it, works in it, put them all in one boat until everybody understands that we are in one boat. There are too many people under the mistaken belief that i am going to take care of myself over here and you all figure it out. And some of us are not going to be easy nuts to crack. But to me that is the fundamental problem. There is too much of a belief that there are is a bunch of escape hatches and so we are doing all of this stuff to take care of our individual self or a couple of ourselves and we are not owning the fact that we have to make it work. And it only work when is it works to everyone. To his point to what is happening in the criminal justice, this is our unwilling. Announcer Company Front that we have so we backed into this crazy logic where, if we under invest and it doesnt work out, we will lock them up. Well first of all, most people are coming back and that is just an insane way to approach this. We just, we have to understand, you know, we are in one boat and, you know, i am an old classroom teacher, and perhaps the best way to communicate that is to put us all in one vote until it gets into our heads. Thank you. So with that, we will wrap up the panel. And thank you to all of our panelists for being here today. [ applause ] o