A New Moon Shot Equity in 10

 

In 2010, I walked 400 miles from Connecticut to DC, because high stakes testing abuse was killing the joy and creativity in our public schools. In 2015, I walked it because high states testing and inequity were turning our public schools for Black, Brown, Special Education, and Poor children into a School to Prison Pipeline. 

After my September radio show, my guests, and I shared a dream. In 2024, I propose state walks for equity, and equity report cards for legislators. This April 4, 2024, on the anniversary of Dr. King’s Assignation A small group of believers in change shall walk 12 miles from CCSU the first school of education in Connecticut to Hartford our state Capitol. What if small groups in all 50 states did the same. 

What if we issue equity report cards that failed this School to Prison Pipeline, gave states 10 years to make it right, came back each year with updated report cards. John F. Kennedy said we will put a man on the moon by the end of a decade, and we did. 

I am proposing a new moon shoot, a moral challenge to end 170-plus years of inequity and injustice in our schools. change it not a title wave, it is a cracking that brings the whole house down. Dare, we dream a new brave world...

We are the small cracks rejecting the silence and apathy of an immoral School-to-Prison Pipeline status quo,

Dr. Jesse P. Turner 

Uniting to Save Our Schools

Still True Badass Teacher

If you like to listen to the tune that inspired me this morning at sunrise, its the cover of Crosby, Stills and Nash's Teacher Your Children by Play for Change. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZIx55cFf-o

And if you are bored, and want to listen to the radio show that spark this moon shot..
https://www.facebook.com/wnhhradio/videos/6590115427739825 

How does America demonstrate our love of children color in our schools?

 

Maya Angelou said: “If you're for the right thing, you do it without thinking.” 

(I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)

No matter what you hear, Literacy is complicated, it includes essential skills, but so much more. 

At our Central Literacy Center, we meet children where they are, follow the data, and work hard to create a deep sense of caring. 

Every child receives one-to-one tutoring from a fully certified teacher here. Our children come from different school districts, some can have this level of support at their local public schools, but most attend schools that lack the funds to do this. Caring requires funding and resources. 

What is not complex is that Wealthy predominantly white schools have the necessary funding and renounces needed, and children attending schools in communities of color seldom have the funds or resources needed. 

We can't blame poor school districts or their teachers. We can blame America the richest nation in the world whose school funding formula supports inequality. Our children's learning conditions are their teacher's working conditions. We cannot blame children, families, or teachers who attend or work in underfunded and under-resourced schools. 

Nel Noddings: American feminist, educationalist, and philosopher best known for her work in the philosophy of education said: “My contention is, first, that we should want more from our educational efforts than adequate academic achievement and, second, that we will not achieve even that meager success unless our children believe that they themselves are cared for and learn to care for others. What is an America that spends roughly 23 billion dollars every year on predominately wealthy white schools than on poor schools in communities of color? It certainly isn’t that we care for all America's children! 

I know why caged birds sing,

Dr. Jesse P. Turner 

Central Literacy Center Director

If you like to listen to what inspired me it is TRUTH. link for a clip of me talking about inequity in our schools on Brainwaves Anthologies on YouTube I am tired of reading wars that imagine that inequality, systemic racism, and lack of funding does not matter.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLJzMZDTkrk&ab_channel=TheBrainwavesVideoAnthology <

I am the broken record of truth in our public schools 

I choose to not get on your Ed Reform Merry Go Round

When education reformers, policymakers, and Wall Street say choice, read between the lines. For they have already made a choice. To place profits before our children. 

The Merry-Go-Round of school reform money tree shouts:

New tests, 
Charter Schools,
Magnet Schools,
State takeovers,
Google classrooms,
Chrome books,
Drive-by-teacher alternative programs,
New Rigorous Standards, 
New Fail Proof Curriculums.

Blame:
Parents,
Students,
Teachers,
Schools,
Blame everyone,
Except those making hundreds of billions of dollars running the Merry-Go-Round.

Look everywhere but at those making profits, giving campaign contributions, and sweet jobs to family and political allies,
They love the teacher blamers,
Children are falling because teachers didn’t teach them right,
Don’t worry parents for a few billion we can fix it. 

Time to Look behind that great OZ Curtain,
Where we discover rich white kids always get more,
Black, Brown, Poor, and Special children get less.
Much, much, much less,
23 Billion dollars every year.

Now these Ed Refromers want teachers to take sides in their reading wars.
I can hear that cash register of a status quo ringing,
A school-to-prison pipeline that profits from 5 until death.

How about we do something different?
Radical,
Fair,
Humane.
Children, Teachers, and Parents shout ENOUGH,
EQUITY now!

I have an idea, and it won't cost a penny more.
We can take that 23 Billion Dollars extra spent annually on Wealthy Predominately White Schools, and spend it on our children in our poor school districts. You know the children who America has given less to for over 170 years.

It's time to close their merry-go-round down.

If you like to listen to the tune that inspired my blog today its Adrea Day's "Rise Up" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZnv6qLWPy4 <