Race, Class and Progressive Educational Programs

At Extra Credit, James Forman Jr. offers some thoughts on the question posed by Kevin Carey and Sara Meade at the Quick and the Ed and previously discussed here at Edwize — what should a progressive solution to dysfunctional educational bureaucracy look like?

James writes:

In 2007, the civil rights community and, in particular, black folks, ultimately are going to have to make a decision: is the civil rights movement vindicated by having upper and middle-class black people (like me) run school systems that disserve poor black children?

I believe the answer is no. My father gave most of his life to the movement, and I know that all the marching and the dying that people did was not so that some of us could have jobs. It was so that all of us could read, do math, develop a love for learning, feel the power that comes from knowing your brain can solve tough problems, and get a job you enjoy. Until we become clear on this question nothing else will get fixed.

On the issue he raises, James is certainly right. But it is striking how different New York City and much of the rest of the country is from Washington DC on this issue: it has been a good twenty years since the question of who was running the public schools — as opposed to how the public schools were performing — was a live issue here. By the late 1980s, there already was a consensus that appointing an African-American or Latino/a chancellor was, at best, the very first step in the hard work of making public schools work for poor children of color.

Moreover, the work done in education around the country has reflected this consensus. What could be a more definitive statement that the heritage of the civil rights movement lies in improving the quality of education and in opening doors to productive lives of meaning and purpose for those children economically and socially marginalized in our society, than the Algebra Project work of Bob Moses, himself an outstanding leader of SNCC during the heyday of the civil rights movement? For most of us, this question was settled long ago, and it feels a bit like a time warp to see it raised today.

More importantly, how far does James’ recognition take us? As an aspirational statement, a declaration of intent, it is fine. But isn’t it, too, just a preliminary step in the hard work of making public schools effectively serve poor children of color? What is important about Moses’ work with the Algebra Project and about Forman’s own work with the Maya Angelou Charter School is that they have institutionalized this aspiration and they have developed a program that puts into practice the noble intentions of educating fully children of color living in poverty. They don’t just talk the talk; they have figured out how to walk the walk, a step at a time.

And here is precisely the point at which a progressive educational program departs from magic bullet solutions, such as the right’s call for privatization and unregulated markets as the solution to every educational problem. Moses’ Algebra Project and progressive charter schools such as Forman’s Maya Angelou are pieces of a much larger programmatic effort, with literally scores of other discrete pieces, from the personalization of education that comes from smaller class size and the small schools movement to the development of real teacher, parent, student and community voice in school decision making, from full, equitable educational funding for all — and especially for schools serving students with the greatest need — to transforming teaching into a full profession. It comes from an understanding that improvements in the education of children living in poverty are not, in and of themselves, sufficient, but must be accompanied by improvements in their health care, their housing and the general quality of their life. This complex of progressive initiatives may not be easily communicated in its totality, and certainly can’t be reduced to a ten second sound bite the way that the magic bullet solution of the right can. But it has the distinct advantage of being rooted in the many facets of the complex, real world of schools and the real lives of children living in poverty, and of making tangible changes for the better in both.

A thousand mile journey, the old Chinese proverb goes, begins with a single step. A progressive educational program in America today is the story of that journey, told in its many steps.

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