We see the murders of George Floyd, of Ahmaud Arbery, of Breonna Taylor and of so many black men, women and children who have lost their lives to violence at the hands of police and at the hands of their fellow Americans, who felt free to act on their racism, through the prism of our institutions. From our own work, we understand particular tragedies in specific places happen within systems built on institutional evil. The story is not just some cops misbehaving, but the immorality of forever accepting the presence of misbehaving cops. The story is not just a few racists acting alone, but the immorality of accepting systems built on that racism.
We add our voice to the growing consensus that while the tragedy is familiar, this moment is different; that we need deep, structural change; that we need it now and more importantly, that we commit ourselves to making that change. This moment is different.
The racial inequities revealed by COVID-19 make this moment different. The absence of empathy and understanding from our current national leadership makes it different. Great Depression level unemployment makes it different. Social media makes it different. The rainbow in the streets makes it different.
The change we need cannot be based on the “bad apple” explanation of wrongdoing alone, nor on the “change a regulation” theory of change. Police departments change the training and the regulations, but the failures recur. Endlessly. Rather than limiting ourselves to regulating police behavior, should we change who becomes and remains an officer of the law, or is it our understanding of the job itself that needs to change, especially in relation to all the other components of a “whole community” approach to public safety?
There is a parallel to our work in education. For too long, striving for equity and excellence in education has been largely about individuals (change the teachers, change the principal) or regulations (change school discipline, test to achieve higher standards, change the curriculum to common core, fix the leaks in the roof). And education advocacy continues within the box of fiscal and political pragmatism, even though that is the same box we use to bury dreams.
We believe that education justice, like criminal justice, too often inappropriately narrows its focus to the wrongs—yes, there are wrongs—done by particular educators, inadequate budgets, and education ideologues. But what if, instead, we brought a “whole child” perspective on what we do now in the face of the disruption to education brought by COVID19 and the racial reckoning that has finally come to the attention of all Americans? What if we looked beyond educators, schools, and their budgets to encompass the several child and family-serving agencies and nonprofits that must provide the non-academic supports students need to succeed. What if we replaced police in schools with well-trained and true “resource” officers when children and adults inappropriately respond to the stresses in their lives? What if we invested in training our teachers and education personnel in the skills necessary to build strong relationships between and among teachers, schools, families, and children?
Science has provided ample evidence that adverse childhood experiences or chronic stress affect learning and that resources and interventions can ameliorate the impacts of adversity; exactly what communities of color have been saying for decades. Now more than ever, our students and our teachers need a different way forward.
The pandemic presents our education leaders with a special moment, akin to the special moment we see in the streets of our country and hear in the passion of so many activists and regular people, young and old, who say this time is different. State and local budgets, especially in education, are facing a red tsunami. Will recovery focus on filling yawning potholes in familiar highways, or will we have a plan to build new and different ways of getting from where we are to where we want to be?
This could be a different kind of moment, ours to make.
Sincerely in hope and action,
Maria Echaveste, President of the Opportunity Institute.
Christopher Edley, Jr., President Emeritus of the Opportunity Institute and Professor, Berkeley Law School
