Families rely on schools for meals for their kids. The longterm Public Education system is still unclear. But covid19 is absolutely magnified the problems we heard about when making this episode. Thank you. What grade are you in. 4th. Do you like 4th grade . Mmhmm. I like your glasses. I like yours, too. You want to try these on in. Im good. What are your favorite subjects . Reading, math, science. I like her, she makes learning fun. Cute kids, amazing teachers. Thats what this episode is about. Its not schools or achievement gap . Nope, why would we talk about that. I dont think people understand how challenging our profession is. To go with the flow. I got to be very patient. Back in my day we called like lunch ladies. You know. You know. No. Notes notes i used to hate lebron james. Im a jordan guy. I live in the bay area. So i used to hate him. Then he went and did this. Lebron james opening the i Promise School in his hometown. He says opening this school may be the greatest moment of his life. Thats when i realized maybe i just sports hate him. For years i have known that Public Schools need help. I never realized it needed to come in the form of a generational athlete. Why is that . What do schools that dont have lebron do . Right now, there are 50. 8 Million Students enrolled in u. S. Public schools. But those schools are not created equal. Because the u. S. Is one of the only developed nations to rely heavily on local property taxes to fund them. So, this means a kid that lives in an economically depressed area gets less money and fewer resources than a kid who lives in a more affluent area. Which means a kid that needs more uses less. Aka, the american way. Public School Funding all across the u. S. Comes from a combination of primarily state and local plus federal resources. Some states are poorer than others. Some cities are poorer within those states. Kids, thats called inequity. Dont get me wrong, money doesnt fix everything in schools. Because the u. S. Literally sprinkled racism all over our society. Which creates a gap and that gap remains no matter how much cash you drop on it. So im headed to ohio. East cleveland and Shaker Heights to see what a couple Public Schools that dont have lebron are doing to close that gap. Jonathan thomas is a bus monitor and a paraprofessional at Mayfair Elementary School in East Cleveland district. The kids writing the bus, hes the First Contact with school in the morning. He works hard to make sure they have a good start to the day. Oh, well. I drink all that milk, ill be in trouble. Right. And how long have you been working here . I have been working at this school going on this is my second year. I have been in the district seven years. Did you go to school here . Not here but i did go to school in the district. You know these fine people in here . Oh, yeah, this is my guy right here. One of my helpers. Come out. What grade is everybody in . 6th. Oh, kinder garten. 5th. What grade are you in . I am in the 4th grade for the tenth time. What are your favorite classes . My favorite class is you focus and tell you what you get yourself together. My favorite part of school is computer lab. Basically when we go there on friday we basically get to have free time. My thing is dinosaur, all as to play time outside to the park and we wont be hungry and saw this light and so. He needs his own show. It doesnt matter how much money your school has. If you are hungry, your teacher cant be interesting enough. School work cant be easy enough. The odds of achieving an above average test score can be twice as high for students who eat breakfast that is those who dont, Public Schools play a crucial role in feeding kid. The East ClevelandSchool District provides breakfast and lunch to all students. Is the food good . Is the breakfast good . Yeah, its really good. Oh, thats orange juice . Yeah. Okay. You want this . You will sit there let that orange juice just hang out, you know. I got a question. What is your favorite part of life . I have a job where i can travel around and talk to people and learn new things about everybody. Thats my favorite part of life. And me. And oh, yes, of course. And me. I got five words to say. Five word. Okay. Im going to count them. One. No, you said five words, ill count your five word. . One, two, three, four, five. Okay. According to 24 7 wall street, East Cleveland is one of the most impoverished towns in america. Poverty is checked to a wide range of skills, lack of heat, lack of sleep, working three jobs. All of that stuff is with a kid going to school. These teachers track the bad stuff first thing in the morning to make their way to learning. Who am i kidding . I can use some cleared out, too. Is that your computer . Oh. I want to first say congratulations to my 1st graders. 100 of the 1st graders students its time for a mindful moment with some music. Put your feet flat on the floor. Put your arms relax ltd. At your desk. Lets listen and relax. Take a deep breath in. Exhale. The main purpose of it is for them to clear their minds and get into the learning zone. Reporter they have been teaching in the district for 27 years. So you give them a little bit of a buffer . Right, exactly. It kind of builds our classroom environment and gets the kid comfortable with each opts and with us and knowing that there the a safe place to share things. I want you to think about one thing that, if there was one thing you could change that has happened so far from the time you woke up until right now, what would it be and tell me why. To help the kids get started. A talking stick is passed around. Id say change from when i went to sleep and my brother to stop snatching the covers off me. Because i be cold. I want my mom to have one job to come home early. My sister wakes me up at 7 00. I would have woke up my na na, we had to come to school at 8 30. She celeste in until 8 28. So i had to walk to school. One thing i changed i wouldnt have spilled on my pants right here. One of the things we noticed is that sometimes the kids just have something to say. When you start teaching, what is on their mind is what they have to say to you. So i think we can do the best lesson on the kids mind, i need to tell you this so its all about letting them clear their minds so that theyre ready for what we have to offer. We can still have a good day, check . Check. Okay. So the next thing were going to do is to stand up, hand up. Tar. Reporter all right. Were going to come up with a handshake to say good morning. Are you ready . So what do we do . All right. Back in the day it was what was in your life you leave outside the door, you come here, we were here to learn. There wasnt a lot of talk about whats going on in your life, you know. That was back in the day. Now were really looking at the whole child and realizing whatever is hang in their life, we help them deal with it. It really helps them function better. They bring in their trueselves. We need to address their bestselves and build on that. Right here. Lets show right here. All right. Stood a wonderful day. Send it off, with a bang well i know one thing. I love my house. Its just home and i love it. For over 25 years, home instead has helped seniors stay home. Now, staying home isnt just staying in the place they love. Its staying safe. Its essential. If your loved one needs inhome care, were here to help. Home instead. To us, its personal. Home instead. Verizon knows how to build unlimited right. You start with the network jd power has named the most awarded for Network Quality 25 times in a row. Then, give people more plans to mix and match, so you only pay for what you need. Verizons unlimited plan is so reasonable, they can stay on for the rest of their lives. Include the best in entertainment and offer it all starting at 35. Plus, 700 off our best phones when you switch. Because everyone deserves the best. The is unlimited built right. Only on verizon. 18yearold michael sharply is a senior in East Cleveland. His mom sees him off to school every morning. His dad is already at work. All right. Mom. Okay. Reporter he has agreed to let me walk with him. You grew up in this neighborhood . Yeah, all my life. Reporter that same house . That same house. Reporter oh, thats cool. How long did you walk . 10, 11. Reporter especially when its cold out here. Especially when its cold out here. Reporter cleveland, ohio is a city that attracted a lot of people. When they made their money, some moved to the suburbs such as East Cleveland. When the industrial times stop rolling, the predominantly suburbs became a predominantly black one, why . Because it hit all of the east west. East cleveland is in cuyahoga county, it operates independently from nearby cleveland. 8 are living below the poverty line. Subprime emergency were handed out like mardi gras candy. Then the bubble burst. Many of the properties today were abandoned. A lot were. In 1990, the population dropped 48 . When those families left, a large chunk of the student population went with them. Did it always look like there . Oh, yeah, its definitely going to change. Definitely. We had a lot more houses back in the day. We had a lot of them. Somebody live in here . No, i dont think so. Okay. Tell me about shaw, like what kind of school is it . Who goes there . Shaw is an interesting place. Reporter so you graduate coming up . Right. Reporter i am asking the annoying question, what happens after that . I will be going to the marine corps. Reporter oh, really, you already signed up . Already enlisted, everything. Reporter what are you doing at the school, what are you into . Automotive mechanics. Reporter what are you doing baaed . I play trumpet. Okay. R. Its not just students that receive a report card, School Districts do, too, after receiving an f on a state report card for three consecutive years in 2018, the district was declared failing. So it was taken over by an academic distress commission. Which is a fancy way of saying it was taken over by the state. Is this the library . This is the library. Reporter hes a state appointed ceo who has been brought into the East Cleveland district. He has been given three years to turn it around. I will walk you in and show you our culinary department. Really this is one of ten programs that we have at Shaw High School. We try and prepare kid for careers. Its not just about learning books and memorizing facts. We got to get you some money. How are you doing . Reporter career and tech classes are a part of his focus, along with achievement and attendance and attracting new students through open enrollment. We hope the experience is better. We normally would have had 8,000. Right now there is 700. So there has been a withdrawing away from this community in terms of education. So im here to try to bring that back. [ music playing ] i want to take you also to one of our premier programs. Our criminal justice program. While students are learning the basics of Law Enforcement, whether being a lawyer or a police officer, this is the room you start getting your basic training. Jim is driving down the freeway when he threw skittles onto the front passenger floor. He leans down and in doing so, he takes his eye off the road for 8 second. He hits another car, what crimes if any has jim committed . He dropped the skittles and went to pittsburgh it up. He knew he could pick somebody up like that. Did he . He did, he got three people killed. A person acts nextly because of a substantial lapse in do you care he fails to perceive or avoid a risk that he cause sfld first of all, my Blood Pressure is high. I think he should have been eating healthier food than skittles. Can i ask why you all decided to take this class . I wanted to be a detective. I wanted to investigate dead bodies and do Something Different than being a nurse. You watch murder shows, dont you . So you all are wearing badges, i see, right . Yep. Do you wear those outside of the classroom, too . In class. Do i get feedback from fellow classmates about being cops . Yes. But the badge is a proud thing. You walk around with a badge, are you like, yeah, thats me. Reporter how does it make you feel differently about Police Officers and the Law Enforcement . The police pull you over, they dont tell you why. In this class, i know the law and how to get out of that situation. You have to protect yourself. The best way to do that is with knowledge. Reporter its clear the students are working hard here. But this is not the hard work we normally think about when we think about high school. On the one hand its great, these kids can learn skills that get them jobs that pay way more than minimum wage in high school. I hope some are able to save money for dream professions in college. I had to do my own hair sentence i was in the mid20s. Is that the style you have been doing . Reporter for me. Okay. Reporter but remember this is not what high school looks like, no one is telling them to get adult job skills. They are allowed to learn something they may never use. They can afford to dream bicker. 100 something . Reporter yeah. Reporter the jackets pretty heavy. What does it say . 70. All right. All right. Well, you got an aplus on that. Reporter shaws health size program qualifies students to become state tested nursing assistants. I figured since i was here. I might as well get a checkup. You are all good. Are you healthy. You take care, i sure got insurance. Whats about to happen . Shes about to take youre sightal signs i. Ive should be quiet. All my Medical College is from anatomy. It was good. I had trouble sleeping. They are certified. They receive their certifications. Reporter so you can work as a nurses assistant and still be in high school . Yes. Oh, wow. We can get jobs and most our jobs pay between i think 11 to 15 an hour. People be surprised how young we are and me, ive always wanted to be a surgeon since i was younger. But i seen this as a head start to get ahead of the game. I feel if you prepare right and train and study, once you get it, you got it. Yeah, once you get it, you got it s. That a slogan . I dont know. Reporter second chances. But a subaru can. dad you guys ok . vo eyesight with precollision braking. Standard on the subaru ascent. The threerow subaru ascent. Love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Get 0 apr financing for 63 months on select models during the subaru a lot to love event. And tmobile doesnt just have a bigger network, but a better one than ever before, with scam protection built into its core. Introducing, scamshield, free from tmobile. Get fewer scam calls. Period. With tmobiles supercharged network, you can say goodbye to annoying scam calls, and feel free to answer your phone again. Hello. So tell me about the ride in here. What were you thinking about . I was telling the uber driver, i have an 88 paprice classic for a long time. I was like, yeah. Ride me home. Reporter Anthony Abraham jack is an assistant professor at the Harvard Education school of education author of the privilege poor how elite colleges are failing students. To understand students, you have to know where they come from. I. To know where a zip code can tell you where a child can end up. We need to make sure we understand not just the differences between students test scores all that kind of stuff. We understand how inequality works and how its localized in neighborhood schools. How is that related to george Harvard Middle School . A assistant principal saw me fooling around with my students and said you dont have a potential to become a harvardite. They create an award for the best student in the year 8th grade year because of things i did, she had to hand it to me. That moment stuck with me because i felt like there was a tally. If i didnt make it would be evidence that she was right. The fact that someone in Public Education is funded by a tax base thats hyper localized yet we know the way in which Economic Opportunity was highly racialized. We know the way segregation works. It has a Ripple Effect where you live and who are your neighbors . So one of the ways we can think about is ultsenate education. To me it feels we shouldnt have Public School disparity. Thats fine. It shouldnt be having a good school and a bad school. You know what i mean . We see funding, its not just who is going there, what do their parents do . The way in which these weird structured districts. Jerry commanders. The neighborhood looks like this. Like a snake. What would happen if you say you know what, we are no longer going to do this hyperlocalized ways of funding schools, everything goes into a pot. Each school will get something equal . Education reform, we think about in an experimental way. Oh, can this new trick work . Can this thing who, . We dont need to experiment. We need to get serous of reforming it so we can actually work on a lot of these problems. One thing thats true, we have a lot of love and respect for teachers, because, you know, a good teach kerr change your life. You can see the difference a teacher can make, how hard it is, how thankless it is. You go, teachers strike, they just want more money. First of all, they are asking for things that help kids, smaller class sizes, safer schools, medical staff. Why does a teacher have to be noble . You aint noble. Every teacher ive ever known goes above and beyond for their schools. Monique davis is no different so she probably needs to make her long day longer is a visit from me. Well, hey. Hi. This is my classroom. Oh my goodness. Is that a dog . It is. I feel like your animatronnics. I ate him. I have students sw intellectual capabilities. They are more than five years below the grade level academically. We are working on life skills. Math that you can use in every day life. How long have you been teaching . This is my 27th year. Really . I have known a lot of teachers in my life at all kind of schools, one thing is consi