Transcripts For CSPAN Brown V. Board Of Education History Of Decision 20170601

This morning and next up here on cspan a look at the supreme courts landmark brown v. Board of education ruling, ending segregation in Public Schools, may 18 was the 63rd anniversary of that ruling. Educators and historians this week examined the impact of the decision. This three and a half hour forum is hosted by the Thurgood Marshall college fund. Good afternoon. I am its kind of quiet in here. Looks like i walked in and i felt i was at a funeral. We have to do something about this. Were going to the body is not here. You know it was really somber and everything. Id like to welcome you. My name is johnny taylor. Im the president and c. E. O. Of the Thurgood Marshall college fund. Welcome to our headquarters. This is home for us. We share this building with gallop, our partner in the work were going to be embarking upon over the next several years. But we just want to welcome you to our home. Id like to start off, though, before i tell you why were here and turn it over to the panelists because thats what were all here for, is to introduce a very special person in the room. There are a whole bunch of special people but a very special person here is the founder of the Thurgood Marshall college fund, dr. Joyce paine. Dr. Paine, thank you. [applause] you know, i dont spend a lot of time calling out people but at the end of the day none of this would happen, we would not be here if it wrn for her to create an organization focused on the historically black college and community. Our members are the state supported institutions but we represent all of the community and our advocacyy efforts, scholarship, program interventions, Capacity Building and the like. Again, i just cant thank you enough, dr. Payne for having the vision and it is a wonderful thing when you can look to the person who founded the organization and theyre alive and well and vibrant. We just left africa and china on like a 15day tour and she out did me. I was like, wow. I came in on the back end of the trip and said, god bless it. How is she doing that . I am so embarrassed. But, dr. Payne, thank you. Two organizations wed like to recognize. Were it not for the Charles Koch Foundation, i know there are representatives from the Charles Koch Foundation and Koch Industries who are in fact here. This is a very special moment for us. This is our first run at creating what will become i believe, an iconic and historic institution and it is the center for advancing opportunity. Our founder, meredith, who hates to be called out, but i have to make sure, meredith, please stand. [applause] meredith was an executive at Koch Industries. The first time ive ever gone to wichita, kansas i met meredith and she has 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 it. She wanted it on may 17, the anniversary. And i thought to myself, what is the significance of that . We always think 1954. I had never really paid attention to the specific date. This is her brain child because we both and all of us collectively, our organizations, the Charles Koch Foundation, Koch Industries, the center for advancing opportunity, and, of course, the Thurgood Marshall college fund, we are all committed to this work. I will not forget my good friend here who is from the Charles Koch Foundation, brendan brown. Please stand up. [applause] none of this, again, would happen without the three people who i have had the Great Fortune to work with in the case of dr. Payne for the last 10 years, seven years as c. E. O. , and with my dear friends at Koch Industries and the Charles Koch Foundation for the last now three and a half 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 at the end of the day to explore the brown vs. Board of education and whether or not the promise was fulfilled. You know, its a question mark. We intentionally in design of this program today, the first center for advancing opportunity event, we intentionally wanted to get some historical context. Thats one of the things that we in the academy and those of us who are really interested in making sure that we advance good policy that really will make a difference. We need to understand and put things in their historical confection. Our first panel today will be people who either themselves or through their families, their parents, were part of the either cases, companion cases and the like they were part of the series of cases that ultimately culminated with brown vs. Board of education, a decision were going to talk about today. The second panel will be on going forward. Well look forward and really explore with people from the academy, people who are practitioners in the Charter School space and other Public School education space, we have to determine what really happened. We have a vision. All of us had expectations back in 1954. The question is, fast forward, 63 or so years later, and how did it all work out . That is really what today is about. Well do it with evidence. Well do it with research. This will not be 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. It will be evidence based. And well be able to make a case for any position that we take. And i think and i hope that youll enjoy today because this is going to be really sort of a treat. We hope that ultimately this will serve as a model for this course that should occur all over america where people take real data, real results, and we can make good policy. We can be fairly assessed whether or not what we thought might work did work. And thats what today is about in terms of, you know, were exploring brown vs. Board of education. So i have the Great Fortune of, im quite fortunate i should say, to bring up our first ever executive director. , someone i jennifer m so proud of. Come up. 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 worked on designing this concept called the center for advancing opportunity. I was so pleased about two months ago when we announced the organization, maybe three months ago that jennifer was named the executive director. She has a wonderful career first at the United Negro College fund and then at the Thurgood Marshall college fund. Graduate of syracuse university. I have to give her credit. Okay. Syracuse. That orange thing is about all we have in common, right . Im a hurricane. So i wanted you all to meet jennifer whiter and she is going to take it from here, our executive director. Thank you. Thank you very much, johnny. Thank you. [applause] so, thank you all so much for being here today at our first ever official event, our first symposium. Today were asking the critical question, was the promise fulfilled . The promise of brown vs. Board of education . I am so delighted to have this distinguished panel. These individuals whose lives and personal journeys and their careers have been impacted by the brown vs. Board of education decision. Before we get started, let me introduce our panelists. Right we have virginia, who has over 20 years of experience in education. In 1998 she founded d. C. Parents for school choice. Just last week she wrote a piece about the importance of access to education where she states, when it comes to residential real estate, they often wind up linked to property values. Currently a history professor at Montgomery College, he is High School One of two cure rators of the museum of the 50th anniversary of the supreme Courts School desegregation decision. Thank you for being here, dr. Smith. And then finally, joining us from ucf where he is the v. P. Of advocacyy and has also 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. Thank you. [applause] before we begin i want to make a note that at the end of the discussion we will open the floor to questions. 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 represented here today on the panel. And that was important because we wanted to get different perspective of their experience. And so the first question id like to pose to each panelist is what were the barriers to Educational Opportunities as you saw it either through your own personal experience or through your parents experience and through your families and communities before the brown vs. Board of education decision . Ill start with you. Well, 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 eighth grade. D he made his way somehow to alabama to go to Stillman Institute and he worked his way to Stillman Institute. 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 Smith College and ultimately became a superintendent of our school district. But my life always has been kind of based on my parents. My parents were both teachers and so the importance of education was to talk about all the time in our family and i watched my parents teaching in all black schools where we went and, again, when we got ready to graduate from Junior High School at the time, we expected to follow our own brothers and sisters to the black high school in little rock and then 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. , 130 of us went into central and, again, this was after i was 6 years old when central was integrated by the little rock nine but even at 6 years old i knew the importance of what was going on. I got it. Even as a little kid. So we understood that this was the time when schools, we needed to be in better educational environments. Thank you very much. Dr. Smith . Well, i grew up in Columbia Heights here in d. C. My first four or five years of grade school were at b. K. Bruce school which is now bruce monroe on sherman avenue. You know, it was an all black school. People look at me and are kind of surprised. But, you know what the one drop rule was. Anyway, there was a white school a block, we could see from our front porch. But i went in the opposite direction 10 blocks down the street to bruce. 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. Gardner bishop, who had a barber shop on u street. And several of the kids i grew up with, you know, hugh price, his mother was a member, and a number other women, but it was a very diverse group, headed by barber, these women, and various kinds of people. But i remember hearing about this all the time. I didnt know what was going on, really, at the time. Ill be honest with you. I really didnt understand everything that was happening at the time except that my mom was doing something to help us out and my dad was okay with it. That she was going to the naacp meetings and shed say, dinners on the stove. Go get your dinner. And he was okay with that. So, you know, those are some of my memories. I remember a couple of times at of es houston games, some the community meetings, he lived right across the street, you know, there were a number of things going on, but i really of the community didnt understand exactly what was happening. So i have to be honest with you. I was kind of a witness with history without really understanding what was happening. So thats my story i guess. Thank you. I grew up in Columbia Heights, also. So he talks about sherman avenue and hampshire avenue. My parents and i lived in that neighborhood growing up. So mine was sort of the next iteration in knowing what the history was and all the stuff you read about in books and learn from school from your parents and the idea of segregated schools. I grew up in washington, d. C. And attended Public Schools. I started at Stevens Elementary School in foggy bottom which was the first school for blacks in d. C. And then on to john eaton Elementary School, wilson. All fully integrated black, white, latino. Also integrated fairly deeply along income lines as well. And, you know, what we knew was that, you know, brown had happened and therefore i changed the world around the way it was organized. In d. C. Part of the legacy was you at times had two separate School Systems operating and so we had a lot of schools located in very proximity to each other, which were hard to understand. Why do we have so many . Why are some so close together . Which we learned, thats because we have the black school here and the white school here. And never should the students meet so you had to have those two systems operating. And so, you know, the story for us growing up was this was going to unleash and create these great opportunities for everyone. And that it was a lot about, you know, changing some of the systemic imbalance in the way schools were funded and supported. I think thats the world i grew up in. He think well talk a little more about was that really what happened. Yes. Thats a great segue to our next question. Because we now want to move to brown vs. Board of education, the decision happens. And some of us were aware. Some were involved and engaged in the community and helping to drive this movement. So for you and your families, what did that decision mean . What was the hope and the expectation around brown vs. Board of education . What was going to change in your lives . Well, you know, one of the things we hoped is we would have better opportunity to attend schools that had more resources for our kids. At least, that is what my parents hoped. So when i went to central with this group, and, yes, we did have a lot more resources. They had this Amazing Library i just could not stay out of. And id never seen a library like that. All the books were up to date. So it did provide resources that our parents wanted us to have. But it was difficult. It was tough. Sort we were invisible of. Teachers wouldnt call on us. We had to rely on those resources because we were not being taught well. And we had to often times we were only one in a class, the only black kid in a class, and they just ignored us. You know, kids made fun of us, talked about us. And every single day for three years i got called the n word and im pretty light, too, you know, 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 s telling you earlier, called my cousin last week to talk with her about my speaking on this panel, and she said that they had the crowds. They had the escort. But they were inadvisible as well. In class. They were invisible as well in class. She said to make sure that we people understand that because brown, you know, became law, you know, the decision was made that wed have equal education but it did not mean that is what we actually had. I struggled through high school and 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. And just one of the reasons the 130 of us were picked to go to central. And our parents or teachers and preachers and civil rights activists, we failed at central because we were not taught. So we had 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. I just counted it down. I didnt have a calendar but 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 that we could selfteach. And our parents, who were teachers, would 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 benefit was this, but the inside story was difficult for us. Just a followup question, how long did it take for things to get better for students at that school . You know, central is 99 black now. So its changed. Maybe the 40th anniversary, there was some conversation about the fact that central was now 90 black and how that was going to look on the media. I think they highlighted white kids and, which i thought was just tacky. You know. But it took many years. I was talking to my sisters friends, who were three years behind us, and i was saying, we had a rough time at central. And she said, we did, too. So we know three years it hadnt changed. And i remember one of the times i really got in trouble my father was the first black assistant superintendent of the Little Rock School district. And my father was brown skin and were light skinned so 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. My dad told me not to do that, but that was the way we would have to survive, you know, we needed a hook. We needed some way to get through it. It took a long time. I mean, i dont we had a facebook conversation recently, and i think the classes up to 1975 were complaining about how they were treated. So i graduated in 1969. Several ere really years, at least to 1975. I dont know beyond that. Dr. Smith, same question to you . What were the hopes and expectations . Im, again, cant give you a really clear answer what i remember from that time, because i our family lived in pennsylvania after i left right after the desegregation began. We lived in pennsylvania. So i went to a School System already integrated and it wasnt really that much of an issue. I remember keeping in touch with my friends back here in d. C. Some of whom went to wilson and other places, but as they were telling me about the racial tensions alluded 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. What i got from some of my friends, too, was d. C. Was governed by a House District committee and there were a number of Congress Members mostly from the south who really just inflated and exaggerated every racial incident that occurred especially cardoza and some of the other schools where the white students staged walkouts, you know, and so that the you know, my impression, and again, this is just an impression but that, you know, a lot of the racial tension that led 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. And so then you fast forward to the 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 in prior generations. Through my experience i had great access to great. One thing that was really interesting was, you talked about white flight but it was also teachers. When people were told this is where you work now, there was, you know, our group of teachers decided that wasnt where they were going to work, which i think changed the dynamics of the School System because i went to schools that also had predominantly black teachers. And i think that made for a very different mix in the School System and for many of the schools and the students, you know, while there was a great amount of diversity in the school in terms of the students there was, i even even while i was growing up, still the white flight leaving the city, changing the makeup of the student body. It was interesting and somewhat unique to have a big City School District that was increasing its percentage of africanamerican teachers, leaders. For most of my teachers and all of the principals were africanamerican. That in a lot of ways sort of almost recreated some of the types of schools that many black people before me had gone to school in. When they had gone to schools where their teachers were black, leaders of the schools were black, leaders of the School System were black, and the students were mostly black. In this case you just had a more diverse student population but the leadership throughout the schools predominantly africanamerican. I think that made for a Different School district. The other thing i began to observe as i got older as a student was that wasnt what was going on everywhere in d. C. So there were some schools that were barely you could sort of draw a line, you know, north and south across the city to where that was happening and other places in the city that was not happening. And i think that the questions around resources and accountability, i think they were issues in places not getting the amount of attention they needed to be getting as we were the School System was recon figuring itself. And i think for some of us, were seeing increased opportunity and access and for a lot of folks that wasnt happening. So lets fast forward to today. A lot of the things you talked flight, te integration, those are a lot of the topics i know you were very much involved in this whole discussion around Educational Opportunity and school choice. And so when we fast forward to today knowing those were some of the challenges that you experienced or your families or communities did, where are we now in terms of both of those issues . What have you seen today as it relates to results of brown vs. Board of education . In my experience i do see a lot of changes. I do see a lot of movement thats come about in the last 20 years, but i also see that there needs to be even more movement. The simple fact Little Rock Central High School, the infamous Little Rock Central High School is predom nanly black, surrounded by a white neighborhood disturbs me. You know. Why are kids not coming to this particular school . Gard to central, surrounded by the predominantly white its almost like two schools. Every time i go over there i get mad. Where are all the black kids in the a. P. Classes and why are the white kids in these mobile home things outside the school . If you go to one side of the school at the end of the day there are black parents picking up black kids or black kids walking home. If you go to the other side there are white kids being picked up. It disturbs me we havent gone any further than that. I do think with the programs around the country i see a lot ore schools, more kids getting into schools that are serving them better. My granddaughter is in a Charter School here in d. C. Where she is thriving and in visual arts and art and those kinds of things which are her interests. And is looking to go to wilson ext year, traditional Public School. I like the families having both choices to do that but i still see that theres a lot of controversy in whats going school. I like 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 theyre still busing 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 on, 40 of them every single day come to eat and they sit, we give them books and we dwiff them little bibles and we give them little bibles and they ask us to read to them. They cannot read. That just makes me angry. And that is not the word i was going to use but it makes me really angry. [laughter] and its church so i cant. You know, those are the things i think we really have to Pay Attention to. What is continuing to go . Did brown fix it all . Are the schools equal . Are we just in Public Schools . Ive said for many years, youve said it, too. Are we just keeping 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 the way were going. I think we have to continue to support changes in the educational environment and school forum and such and im hopeful. Im optimistic. You know, im probably the most positive person in the world. Once i get past going to central high school. So he think we have a good chance i think we have a good chance to move forward and to you know, keep the heart 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 i live in rockwell, maryland. I guess you can say my wife and i have made an educational choice for our son living in rockville, maryland because he has large weighted from Richard Montgomery high school and gone to college. He has graduated from Richard Montgomery high school and gone to college. We have a strong School System in Montgomery County and so my students at Montgomery College are proud of that Public School system. This is very strong. Here in d. C. , of course, it is a different story but i would venture to say the discussions we have about the state of education in this country are symptomatic 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 and infrastructure and social programs. In so, until we can really grapple with some of those deeper problems, i fear were going to continue to have a lot of these discussions about what to do with our educational system because it has to do with our society as a whole. So i really have been i dont want to go on too much of a tangent very active with the peace movement. That deal with social transformation. I am not talking about bang bang, revolution like that. I am talking about what dr. King talked about. I suggest you all go back and read where do we go from here chaos or community . Where he talks about the beloved community. I think we all need to go back and read that very carefully. Hand thek on the one brown decision is certainly a significant step forward. To remove a set of legal barriers. Things people were legally allowed to do to each other that i think we can all agree were not good. Were about. I think what is harder is for people to the willingness to sort of do the daytoday grinding and work to make things better. Ok, you remove some barriers. In our daily lives, people are willing to do a lot of other horrible things to each other and we have not been willing to fight those daytoday fights. Now people have access, they can go to the same school. Well, it is a different fight to make sure all of the schools will allow children to go to our good. That is one we have not been and reallytake on in drive every single day. That is important. If you are going to make sure you can no longer bar children because of their color skin from attending a school but were not going to make sure that we insure the children who come to the school loans. One would argue you are not really winning if you say you you cant learn. That is a longer, daytoday thing to do which requires people paying attention, holding themselves, their elected officials and others accountable. I think especially for people in my generation, some of this is recognizing you have opportunities that other people did not. Now you have to make a choice. Do you utilize this opportunity to help another group of people have opportunities that props you did not or do you simply cash in and say, i am glad i have opportunities. People of tomato that personal decision and i think they reflect on the secretarys is a lot of people of made over the years to open the door of opportunity more and more for others. The question we must ask ourselves on a daily basis is are we still involved in that exercise or are we involved with every man for himself. I think that is sort of the challenge. There is a lot of promise with brown said i am not convinced everyday day i see enough people leaning into the wheel of, lets continue to push that further up there so that all kids at all schools are getting a great education. This is a difference between a good school and everyone having access to a good school but then is the school good for your child. That is where the question of choice comes in. Sometimes a skullcandy objectively good but it might not be the right and good school for your child. We are right now trying to make sure that the schools are simply good. I think there is a lot of work to be done. Lots of folks sacrifice a lot to get us to this point and i think we have to continue to put one foot in front of the other and do the hard work to make sure there are other opportunities and i think there will be new struggles to be maintained. You know, one of the things my dad said to me three or four days after i started central. The he got 14yearold me said i am not going back. My dad said to me, you have a responsibility to go to central, futureell, for generations. You have two younger sisters. What happens if you say you are not going to go. You know . What happens to them, youorder. That has guided me my entire life. Meanwhile, i really believe weve got to be involved. Youve got to be one of those persons that says i will do what i can to make a difference. I think thats what we have all tried to do, make a difference. And remember what my dad said. Conditions and , foronments in education the child, it can be overwhelming. You if you had to try to figure out a way to make some dynamic change around education or opportunity, where would you start . I served on board of education d. C. Where i would start is with people. We need to push ourselves and our friends, everybody we know. You ask people, do you think education is important . Everybody says yes. Nobody says, no comments not important. The next question, what are you doing to demonstrate that it is important or to make a better . This peopleden, dont have an answer for something we all say is important. I think we have to be pushing ourselves and our friends and our families and our colleagues to have an answer to the question and be acting on it. It. If it is in fact imported, know what you are doing to make it better and to demonstrate it demonstrate it is important to others. Otherwise, this is an individual exercise where people can say it is important, but i got other stuff to do. Then we are not making the kind of progress we need to have. It is less of we need to fix this policy or that one. Its more about doing get people involved . Are a lot of available solutions. Every single one of those things need lots of people to work very, very hard to make those opportunities to deliver real results for children. Dr. Smith . Dr. Smith my view on education is really kind of an outsider and a layman. In addition to teaching history, ive been most involved with criminal Justice Reform in maryland at the state level and in Montgomery County at the county level. This past session of the maryland assembly, i was in annapolis to testify for reform legislation that would give Greater Transparency to complaints in the police procedure. We are also working with having civilians on the Police Review boards, and also bail bond reform. True ina lot of what is the criminal Justice System is just as true in the educational system. Our criminal Justice System is broken. I think the same thing is true of our educational system. I think it is a broken system. I think you should go back and look at what earl warren said in his majority opinion in brownlie board of education about Public Schools brown v board of education about Public Schools. The heart and soul of a democratic society, Public Schools basically shaped the citizens of in a gala terry and democratic society. Of education is to bring Children Together and to bring people together. And its not doing that. It hasnt done that. The reason why we are having all of these discussions about what this kind of school is or what that kind of school is is that the Public Education system as a whole is not delivered properly. Just as the system of criminal Justice Reform has a schooltoprison pipeline, has over policing of schools, has this kind of coercive force mentality in education, in education and in the prisons, i think we have to start looking and how to do we and how do we start to transform the bulls minds and spirits . Thats how do we transform peoples minds and spirits . Part of it has to do with healing peoples spirits. Part of it has to do with reaching into peoples hearts. Those are the kinds of questions we need to ask about our schools, just as we ask about our prisons and our courts. Thank you. Ms. Schwartz i look around this room and i see [indiscernible] organizationshese. These organizations who have fought in the 20 years i have been involved to make sure that kids get the education. We need more. You need to stand with them. One of the things i did 20 years ago was decided to stand with them. These people care about kids and what happens to kids. We stand with if these organizations who have stood so much time over the years, supported families and supported children, then i think weve got part of the war won. Somebody told me a long time ago that we lost the battle in the legislature. And i was saying, oh, im through with this. Im mad because we lost. And i dont want to do this anymore because i dont like eating on the losing side. , if youbody said to me letting the are kids that you say you care so much about down. Then you are doing the same thing others have done. I was mad, but i had to go home and really think about setting my priority. It continues to be serving children and serving families and making sure that what is i want to know if so i can pass on to families. That is ultimately we are going to hear more about it but ultimately, that is what you have to do. You have to be involved. As we prepare to move into people will start heading to the microphones and lining up. It seems to me that one of the key components to having successful movement around Educational Opportunity, data goes back to the parents. The you believe that weve got found a good structure for informing parents about Educational Opportunity. Make good choices about education . What are the pieces that are of place or should be a place to help parents navigate this new world of education . Make good choices no. T to the point about the system parentsn, parts are in important part of the students formal education School System. Schools do a good job of recognizing the and leveraging the parent. Ultimately, you got to know what the spirits responsibility is, what the schools role and the childs role is. I taught Elementary School for a decade. People always find a way to blame it on the parents and have a long list of things that parents arent doing. We tend not to actually tell parents what it is we need them to do. Its hard for them to figure it out if we dont from the school side of things articulate that. What we are seeing in several schools that have been successful with families is they are really clear. They tell parents we need to do x, y, z. These are your responsibilities. Here are the things we are going to do. Until the child here are the things youre going to do, and hold each other accountable and tell the child here are the things youre going to do and hold each other accountable. It a lot of, we have not been invested in that. Sadly, some of that is a byproduct of people knowing, if you dont tell depends what you need from them, then you can always blame them and it can always be their fault. The moment you create that accountability the accountability door swings both ways. If you tell parents how to leverage accountability, when they show up to the score the school and start demanding of you what they need for their child, that is what they dont want to have happen. So we have created a system where schools are quite hostile to parents and send them a covert message they are not a wanted or needed partner in this. Are ndc parents for school choice, clearly, i believe that parents should be a partner in the educational process. I really am dedicated to bringing parents in and making them understand isotope d. C. Here in bc in i used to tell parents in d. C. That we are thousands and past. G the scholarship i used to tell them, if you dont speak for your child, who will . And they used to tell me, but they dont want to hear me. So i tell them then go make yourself heard. We taught them how to. Use their voices and how to speak up and make their voices heard and to make their problems known. That is something that i believe i really dont like it when parents are blamed, because there is a lot of effort oftentimes to bring parents involved in their childrens education. A parent told me recently i went to my child school and ask for the test scores, because she was moving out of the city. And the teacher actually said you dont need to know these. We will send them to the new school. And the parent said i want to know. This teacher just refuse to the point where she called and said [indiscernible] it was the most unreal moment raining everywhere in this country when talking to parents, that is how they feel. They are not a part of it and shouldnt have any involvement other than going on field trips or bringing Paper Supplies to the school. Where thehe area me. Age raised my teachers, my parents, the neighbors, the church, the me. School down the street, they raised me. And that is something we have to do more of. Thank you, panel. Lets move to questions. Just real quick following up on what you just said, back in the days of segregation, we had more of a sense of community between parents and teachers. Its been lost unfortunately. There are other things that have been gained, but we lost that. Thank you. So lets have our first question over here on the right. You for your amazing comments and for sharing your personal stories. My name is jennifer mizrahi, president of respectability. We advocate for young people with disabilities. We are 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 are also offering some exciting promise with the mccabe scholarship in florida, for example. I wanted to ask each of you to please reflect on students of color with disabilities in this new era. What can be done to ensure that they dont enter the schooltoprison pipeline, given that today 750,000 people in America Today are people with disabilities. My sister is a special education teacher. She has been encouraging me to learn more about students with a disability. In arkansas, we have a brandnew Scholarship Program called success Scholarship Program for children with disabilities. One of the things i have been charged to do is to encourage africanamerican families to apply. They were not getting many applications from africanamerican families. So we went into the communities and met with them, actually took people over to apply and took applications with us. So there is a great need. Henrietta, my twin sister, has been teaching for 30 years. She is retiring this week. She has 10 kids graduating, all africanamericans, with high school diplomas. She stayed two extra years to make sure that they were graduate would graduate. Their graduation was an amazing highlight, not only for her, but for the school. They got awards. She made sure one of her kids got a twoyear scholarship to college. And these were kids she is a selfcontained teacher and these were kids who have been, before now, not considered let into the educational environment. I see a lot of states and its kind of backwards a lot trouble withe special needs kids so they, pass kids. Ecial needs they dont want to be identified as not being taken care of. But it works for us. Then our kids can get scholarships and attend the schools that they want to attend, which oftentimes lead to i dont know about other states, but arkansas is one of the few states where kids dont get a certificate of completion. Diploma. Ally get a and a have to have just as many credits as everybody else. But it takes an engaged, involved teacher to make sure that they have them. Something that is close in our hearts. All, we haverst of to push everyone who is involved in education, in any way, shape, or form, to think of all. Caught in this game of, the moment we allowed to be less than all children, we start leaving kids behind it various sorts. When we think about children with disabilities in general, that pushes us to the question of our schools designed or held accountable to meeting childrens needs . In our societies, we lose track of that. We think about schools are going to import or do a set of things for different children and thats what its going to do,. If you are fortunate to be among the kids were the school is doing enough, great. But if youre not, wish you the best of luck. In some cases, some children need more, some children need different, and there are a lot of elements. We were having this conversation last week over dinner at my parents house. My brotherinlaw cush a Softball Team for students with disabilities at his high school that is designed to give kids who otherwise wouldnt have the opportunity to purchase a paid index of curricula sports. I played sports in school. My kids played sports in school. That is a valuable experience. But we need to say children need a certain set of things and its our spas ability 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. Are really in this for all the children, then it is not negotiable, that we can give less to another group of kids for any reason. Into budgeting conversations oftentimes, where we are simply taking the Resource Pool we have an dividing it up among the kids we have and thats what everyone gets. Thats the wrong approach. We have to push hard on that because, oftentimes, the people that have the sternest advocates and of getting the strongest advocates and up to getting what they want and need and the others who are not as visible dont. We are in this for all children and then everybody will get what they need. That is how i approach it. You have to thinking of it in that way. If we are not thinking about childrens needs, then we are doing something that will help many, if not most kids, and unknowingly leave children behind. I can tell you from personal i mean,xperience, Montgomery County Public Schools, as advanced as they are, could do more to deal with special needs students in terms of disabilities. I would suggest that you take a deep look by Brian Stevenson called just mercy based on his experiences as a courtroom criminal justice lawyer, mostly in the south, but in california, too. A lot of his clients who got involved in the criminal justice gonem were people who had through abusive situations as children, who had gone through high School Situations where their needs were not being properly met, and then they got involved in this schooltwoprison pipeline. Schooltoprison pipeline. The Education System and the correctional system are really not that separate. They are part of a continuum for many young people. So again, rehabilitation rather than punishment, Development Rather than coercion, love rather than anger i think all of those are factors that we need to think about, not only in our children who are in school, but once they have their the misfortune to be in the system, think about when they get incarcerated. This is all part of the formation from human beings into individuals in a changing society. Thank you. Taylor thank you all for coming out today. Im struggling with something. I think this will get to the crux of some of the issues we are confronting. I grew up in fort lauderdale, florida. I was in high school. There was a desegregation effort about the time that i was coming where wele school, began busing africanamerican students into majority institutions or predominately white institutions for purposes of integrating. There was a big battle, years of litigation. We have all seen those in k12 systems. Iember asking it was was a pretty interesting high school students. I asked this caucasian american woman, who i admired quite a bit, why did she transfer her kids out of the school where people like me were coming to . Respect e still still sticks with me. 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 they can get. I only get one shot and thats what i owe them. And to the extent that they are shipping people into this school i love this, they are shipping people into this school and it is going to bring down the overall rigor and create behavioral problems. She went through this whole thing. Struck me as a very honest but it hurt me because she didnt realize she was saying that people like me were negative to the environment. 30 years forward, fastforward and this happened literally a myth ago a group of friends, africanamericans, successful, doctors and lawyers and india jeeves, we are all sitting around and talking about where our kids were in school. All of ourds kids were either in private schools or selective charters schools. And said,ked around god, we are doing the very thing that we have complained about people doing for years. I was shocked when one of the mothers said to me i asked her, what is it all about . And she almost verbatim repeated the words from the white woman 30 years prior who i judged who essentially said i have to do what is in the best interest of my child and the others have to figure out the best interest of theirs. How do we reconcile that when we talk about brown versus board of education . Thats a tough one, right, because ultimately, our duty and responsibility while i want to see the benefits of integration, but to your point, they are the better books, education, and children behave better. I had to look at myself in the mirror and say i am doing the very thing that i accused these horrible racis i amt just doing it amongst my people. It all is comes up with me, and because i dont not want to deal with that. If my kids went to Public Schools, and only one went to a private school or Charter School, i think that is very difficult. We have grown, and parents who want to have some say in our kids education i do not the forld look at it as a voice racism, i think if you look at it as the growth of what we are able to do now. One of the things i have had trouble doing is convincing soents that they have a say in their childrens education, that they can ask for certain things, that they can send children to certain schools. We all win went into that were kids were pulled out of schools because we went to their wind their went there. I think we have to look at it a different way. Asshould not look at it continuing or d continuing what they say. We should look at it as we are more informed. We are able to have a say now. When they were busing kids from lulac to go to these schools because they needed black kids in the white schools, im an africanamerican, my father black people were moving further out. Because kids were coming to these schools and i remember when i was about 15, asking my parents. I saidty mouthy you know, if we go to their schools and they take their kids out to good other schools, that sounds mean. He said that means they are not being thoughtful or they are being racist. So they do understand that, but i think nowadays if we do not say i want my kids in Better Schools and we do not go out and get those kids in a Better School, i think we are missing out on a lot of information we have been given to have access to Better Schools, my kids all went to Different Schools. They went to five Different Schools, and people would say are you crazy . You have to get up at six in the morning. Toould say yes, but one need this. School thatpick a is going to benefit the needs of the child. Think that that is where we are right now. In my opinion, you can forget about that. Going to takem this slightly differently. Is you have a person who always make the right choice for you and your child. Im not telling anyone not to do that. I want everybody i talked to to do that. That said, we are supposed to be smart enough to challenge things that people put out in the universe, and i think that sometimes we take a pass on thinking harder and thinking smarter about things. I went through desegregated schools my entire academic career. People were saying if you do not get them out by the third grade, they are not going to college. I went off and had a successful career, went to college morehouse college, a pretty highly regarded place. People were saying it then that it wasnt true, they are saying it now, and it is not true either. Part of the reason some of these things are allowed to stick because we do not challenge it. Friends do not say oh, if you are going to this school or that school it will not work out. We can have a reasonable discussion about why a school might be better for a particular ofld, but we cannot let go the challenge of these sometimes racist notions that this school not get your child ready. My kids are going to the same school i went to, and even my friends say oh, we have to get them into private school. I said you can do that, but nothing has changed in their experience going to that school. If it is a Better School for them, great. The school they are in it now is a great school, and i watch kids thrive every single day. I also think about the lesson my children learn when i put them in that school. When i show up in that school to make sure the school is meeting their needs and the other kids they are in class with, because i want them to know that this is hard. The school was not magically good. People worked hard to make these schools, keep them good and get the better every year. We had a conversation with the Parent Organization board at my sons high school, where the principal wants to move ninth graders into more rigorous math and science courses, and parents are pushing back. Oh, if you do that you will hold my kid back. No we are not. We will make sure that everybody gets through this course work so everyone has the opportunity to pursue honors and ap. There areot think enough of us willing to push back on some of these things people say are not supported by the facts. That is part of this that bothers me. People say stuff all the time that are not supported by actual facts, and we let it go, and we have to push harder against that. We have to tell our stories and our truth. At the end of the day, if you are convinced, for some objective reason, that that school is truly better for your child, great. But some of the gets to be about my children are now in middle school and high school. Me and my wife talked about this. The school is good for our kids, and there are a lot of other children in of those schools were benefiting because we are there who are benefiting because we are theyre pushing the school to be better for everyone. I have had hard conversations with principals and teachers tell me what is holding back the test scores is all the low boundary low income kids in the school. Come back with the data and say no, these low income kids are performing ter than to or three times two or three times better than anybody else in the school. A lot more of the path we want to take on that daily fight, and it is a fight. It andes people look at say oh, here he comes again. Have that sense around me, do not, this, that, the other will get it done. I will keep it super real for arebecause other parents going to sit here and learn it. We are also pushing that message to our kids, who are saying to the next generation of parents if you go to the neighborhood school, i do not know. You have to go here or here. We need to push back that more comfortably than we are doing right now. When i go back and read earl warrens opinion in brown versus the board of education, the heart of his argument is the ale of Public Schools in democratic society, and i listened to a lot of the debates going on today. 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. So, you know my suggestion would be that a lot of policymakers who are engaged in these debates about education in this country go back and read what earl warren wrote in 1954. Thank you. Come on this site. Hello, just want to thank you so much for your time. My name is isabel gonzalez, and i am finishing my masters at the Catholic University of america. I came today because i took a developing world. The classroom touches on aspects in developing countries, why are they struggling in education . That can be very much applied to some of the School Districts in the United States. I really sympathize with your comments on family and how important it is for a childs education. At least for me, i know that my parents sent me to private schools for the majority of my life. But i know that it was their support and their patience with me that really helped me excel. Just knowing that even if i failed a spelling tell us, in fourth grade, failed a spelling test, in fourth grade, i would not get punished, ive get somebody and support. How can we help you succeed . Support. Hy and how can we help you succeed . Iowa 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 . But tot that, communicate with teachers and in in sure that it is important to put your childs first. As a society, it is also important to see things in the form of the common good. How can my child benefit, but also what can i do . Some of you mentioned it, what can i do to contribute to . Ociety what can i do to be involved . Basically, the incentive what have you seen that works . At his school, he and other parents are really involved. Talking to parents and meeting , andparents can do that those of us who have those types of skills or organizations continue to support parents and make them feel like they can be a part of their childs education. With, weograms i work encourage parents to come along with the children. Through the years, i have seen lots and lots of parents that wanted to be involved, but did not know how to. Sometimes it is just a matter of sitting down and talking to them, and making them understand what their role could be. When my first child went to school, why mom said be involved in your childs education. I sat in the back of the room and scared the heck out of the teacher because she thought i was spying on her. When i had a conversation with mother, went back to my be involved, do something that helps. Be innovative. What can you bring to this classroom and the teacher . I learned from an International Organization we had lots of people from other countries, with they would bring different food and we would have these Great International days, but i had to be taught. I had to be told to be involved, you need to do this and this. I think you said earlier, we need to tell people what we need them to do. I think that the schools and the parents have to Work Together to make sure everyone is on the same page about what can be involved. And there is a lot of pushback and there is a lot of pushback in schools. Generally, parents do not feel think we on the education site have to find a way to make parents feel that they belong as part of their childs education. Workshops that taught parents how to talk to teachers, roleplaying, sometimes we bring in actual principles and teachers to talk principals and teachers to talk to our parents, and occasionally we would sit in on meetings between parents and administrators. I was convinced at some point that everyone was saying the they were just saying it differently. If you get people understanding that they are saying the same thing, the bottom line is Everyone Wants to help the child. Instead of getting into an argument about what you are saying or what you said, we are going to intervene. Those people that are involved in education reform or period need to play a role in helping parents get involved. A mixed era in our next we areon journey, that involving parents, my parents were involved in our education. And we need we need to also consider that parents have different skills. We did aof years ago, checklist with the department educated patient of education of what you can do to help track the progress of your child and if the school is doing things to improve. We are not here to say hey, the school is not doing well and you should abandon its, but you should be asking important questions. Some parents, i have been a teacher so ip behind the curtain and no how it all works, which is why i always out myself to childrens teachers. Questions. Hey, the reason i am asking questions is because i know how it all works. A lot of parents do not have that. I used to get a weekly homework sheet. I would tell parents, this was how it works. I will send this home every day and it has a place for you to sign. My expectation for you is that you sign it, that you have seen they have done the assignments. You have to check that it is right, just sign it. If i get this tomorrow and it is not signed, i am calling you. You agreed to do that. They knew i was calling, it is because they did not do it they were supposed to do. Aed to College Knowledge their aspirations for their children are high, but we have to illuminate the path. Where do we get to where we are, walking them to school in kindergarten to getting your child on the path to a good education. A lot of parents are unaware. The school is setting them feedback, things are going well, the report card looks alright, but they are missing a lot of the major milestones and ends marks along the way to put them on the paths benchmarks along the way to put them on the paths where they want to be. And once they have missed all these things, it is too late. Is laying it out for parents, here is what you need to be checking on where and when. Oif college is part of your childs plan, you need algebra in eighth grade. If not, they are off course. We could pick we can fix that, but we had an issue when i was on the board to where you could let a child take two math classes in one year, even if they were sequential, because if they could not take them both that year, they would not graduate. That is a byproduct of not having told parents this is what you need to be doing. Tools andng the knowledge and skills to support their children along the way, because a lot of this is that people do not know, and a lot of people act like if i know, everybody else should know. Like a parent to did at least we are asking them the questions. We do not tell them and then we act surprised when they do not know. I would suggest and again, speaking as a nonexpert, i would suggest one of the things that would be useful to look at is teacher dissatisfaction. I understand that here in the district there has 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 and january, just walked off the job. To me, that is incompetent civil. Incomprehensible. I talked to my colleagues, at least three people who were teaching at Montgomery College that were formally with Montgomery County Public Schools. What is it they all are just, one is a biologist, one teaches leftry, and they both Public Schools and went to public Montgomery College. But one of the things consistently as administrative paperwork. They feel overwhelmed that they do not have time to devote to preparation, to devote to interacting with the students because of regulations and paperwork, much of which comes from the federal government. All kinds of forms that have to withlled out, especially special needs students or whatever. So i think we really need to look at what kind of environments teachers have to function in. That is a great point, thank you for your question. I serve as the chair of the board of a local Charter School, and that is something i find to be pretty overwhelming in terms of the amount of paperwork. The reporting in, and i understand that metrics and tracking and Holding People accountable, but what is the right balance for students so they can get sufficient attention from the teachers . Teachers . I am the associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University System of maryland. As i listened to you give this briefing on brown v board of back on a i reflected career that is coming to an end in 29 days. ,2 years in this business starting out as a Public School Language Arts teacher in the publicschool cities School System of chicago, and having seen been a twotime president of two hbcus. And the many times i have heard discussions like this on the anniversary of round v board of education, they all seem to focus on the same on the same issues, except the point that mr. Smith made. It is rare that the discussions really delve into that. He talked about the criminal Justice System and the socioeconomic and political. All of you alluded to resources. I will single out one in Montgomery County. A goodth mentioned Public School system. Some of you may know that it is working on an Excellent Institution in Higher Education in the universities of shady or 20 years, 15 ago, was one building. Not even really one building. It was a warehouse, shared. It is five buildings now. Montgomery county is committed to education. From prek to the phd. Have is related to all of that, if you could have one resource, regardless of how you obtained it, to bring about a change. If you articulated that you prek not to just k12 and , and the lady asked question about disability that is amount in question. It is not just the mounting amounting question. 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 dc, because several of you mentioned educational reform, to bring about the kind of change that was alluded to in the war in opinion, but also in the issues of education for the citizens of the United States of america 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 for their children. Im a big scholarship component. Proponent i believe if i had the money, the resources, that i would make provisions for every child to go to any school that their parents chose. I believe strongly that we are our childrens first teachers. We know our children better than anybody else. I think that is what i would want to do. It would be such an incredible thing to be a will to talk to bes and say, my child able to talk to parents and say, my child is at a school where he is thriving and i was able to send in there. I really believe i do believe it should be controlled by state and local municipalities. But ity do believe that, would be something that would be incredible in education. Of the things that Brian Stephenson says in his book just mercy toward the end of the book, he says we live in a broken criminal Justice System, but it is not just the criminal Justice System that is broken, society is broken. This will sound perhaps impossible to achieve, idealistic , an or idealistic, but as we have these conversations, as we definitely need to do about how to improve and move forward in education, i think they should be part of some more fundamental kinds of discussions about what happens in North Carolina when they have moral tuesdays, and what does that mean, and what are the roles of clergy people . 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. Live in a secular society. We have a secular educational system. When i teach in community college, i say to my students look, it does not matter what church or synagogue or temple or ram you visit,h we all have spiritual values. Especiallye of you, those that go into education, i am not telling you to go to my church. I am not telling you what church i go to, it is none of your business which church i go to. But you need to look back into your families and your roots into your cultural communities, whether that is buddhist, muslim, jewish, whatever. Get substance and strength from that, because there is a lot there. You can get good jobs, learn to be a police officer, learn to be a school counselor, go on to the university of maryland or howard or the au and have a comfortable career, but we have to look at what is inside your heart. I think that is perhaps one what some of our teachers tend to forget sometimes. Those are the kinds of things i think we really need to bring back. That is what we had when we were in the segregated system. Teachers thatf had a lot of those oldfashioned values when we were part of an educational community. I remember one lady. She said, my students are all brilliant. We used to make a joke about her. She was very proud of us. And so, i think there has to be we do have to try to bring that back. When teachers interact with students, especially when they interact with parents, they have a special, very special kind of role to play. The same is true if the person is a psychological counselor in the parole system, or the person is a teacher. They have paperwork, regulations, people looking over , but there iss that other dimension. If there was one thing that i i like to see more of mean, again, i said i had a personal experience. It has to do with one of my children in the schools who had a special need. And we really learned a lot in the Montgomery County schools. If she is learning and moving forward now. She is sprouting wings and flying. There was a time when i wanted to see the School System do more than they did. We have to wrap up. I probably shouldnt have gone last. So, 1 maybe a two parter. Talks about education, claims to care about it, has kids in it, whatever their reason, put them all in one boat until everyone understands we actually are in one boat. Is,t now, the harsh reality there are too many people under the mistaken belief that im going to take care of myself over here, and you all a great out. It is going to be a long ride, but i think that for me is the fundamental problem. There is too much of a believe that there are 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 this work. It only works if it works for everyone. With criminaling justice, this is an unwillingness to confront that we have to invest in the growth and development of young people until they are ready to be successful in the world. Logic that ifrazy we under invest, and it doesnt work out, were going to lock them up. First of all, people are coming back, and the second of all, that is an insane way to approach this. We have to understand, we are in one boat. Best way to communicate that is put us all in one boat until we finally get it through our heads, until we finally start acting that way. Thaou