When it comes to education, some argue that the ability to opt out of the public system is practically a right. An integrating White parent from Lancaster, PA, argues that “school choice” hides who suffers from policies like Pennsylvania’s educational improvement tax credit program, and shields from blame those whose publicly funded but antidemocratic “choices” cause harm.
In White-normed parenting culture, the pull to follow the “herd” of what others are doing can be very strong. A mom shares how the Integrated Schools Two Tour Pledge helped her reorganize her thinking and priorities around choosing a school.
White mom, Emily Moores, reflects on the parallels between tending to a garden and tending to the relationships necessary to participate in meaningful integration and living in true community.
There are places where “touring schools” is just “good parenting”, and yet that is not a universal experience. One mom shares her experience of living in a community where “touring” to determine a school’s quality is not the norm, and how she is navigating making equitable educational decisions with her family.
There is no Integrated Schools “formula” for choosing and enrolling our children in a new school, and what is important might take a different shape for families depending on their particular racial makeup. To illustrate that, Katherine, a mom in Los Angeles, shares her family’s kindergarten enrollment story.
My last post was about the exchange between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden at the first round of Democratic primary debates earlier this summer. It’s amazing to me that this already feels so distant. Before getting to the main topic for the posts this week, here’s a quick summary of some of the major things that have happened in the last month or so.