Legacy 2017 Miami: Top Black Educators Issue | Page 8

8BB
AN INDEPENDENT SUPPLEMENT BY MIA MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS GROUP TO THE MIAMI HERALD
Methods to Bolster Community ‘Safety Nets’;
Students’ Success at Stake
Opinion
By Dr. Marcus Bright
Our children need a community safety
net to catch them when they fall into
difficult circumstances. Many of these young
people lack an adequate support system at
home and fall through the cracks into
despair and devasta�on. This is not the fault
of the children themselves, but the conse-
quence of a number of behavioral and
systemic dysfunc�ons that may have put
them and their families at a
disadvantage.
This is why the movements to defund
TECHNOLOGY
By Richard Chance
MONDAY, JULY 17, 2017
public educa�on and shi� funds to private
interests must be vigorously opposed. This
"reverse Robin Hood" tac�c threatens to
destabilize the public schools that the
majority of our children a�end.
Unfortunately, the dominant narra�ve of
“bad public schools” is o�en able to drown
out counter narra�ves. The stories of good
public schools are mostly submerged by
broader derogatory characteriza�ons. This
adds ammuni�on for the development of
public policy based on no�ons and
narra�ves that are inaccurate and
incomplete.
If you can put the en�rety of public
schools in the dysfunc�onality bag, then it
becomes easy to move an alterna�ve
agenda of destruc�on. Secretary of
Educa�on Betsy DeVos and several state
governments have put their foot on the gas
with regards to accelera�ng the growth of
charter schools, including those that are
privately managed.
Charter schools serve a purpose and can
be great vehicles for innova�on, but the
starving out of tradi�onal public schools to
fund the resurgence of charter schools is
not a tenable proposi�on for the over 90
percent of students who a�end tradi�onal
public schools. Educa�on is s�ll the core
vehicle for social mobility. A�empts to
create a stra�fied system of schools that
have, and others that severely lack,
threatens to expand the quasi-caste
economic system th