Washington State Teacher of the Year Nate Gibbs-Bowling made waves in the education world recently with his essay, “The Conversation I’m Tired of Not Having.” Gibbs-Bowling bluntly called out the lack of political will and urgency around educational equity, writing up front, “I want to tell you a secret: America really doesn’t care what happens to poor people and most black people.”
He’s right — but goes on to draw an incomplete conclusion.
As someone who has engaged in education reform work for a decade, I applaud Gibbs-Bowling for using his voice to tell this hard truth. In a country where a child born in poverty still has but a 10% chance of graduating college — where the very school buildings look and feel different — we regard these “savage inequalities” as an unfortunate reality instead of a national crisis (similarly, it’s hard to imagine the drinking water in the Upper East Side or Beverly Hills becoming contaminated with lead).
[For more of this story, written by Elliot Haspel, go to https://www.the74million.org/a...de-the-classroom-too]
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