Do I Really Have to Live in An All-White Neighborhood for My Kids to Get a Good Education?

I grew up in Queens (St. Albans), New York and attended Andrew Jackson High School in the early ’90s. My family, who migrated to New…

Our Private School Didn’t Fight For My Son or Daughter, But Chicago Public Schools Did

Come January 2018, Illinois parents will have the chance to apply for tax credits when they donate to scholarship funds for private schools. But I…

We’re 42 Years Apart But Our Mission Is the Same: Change Education for the Black Community

We are two Black men separated by 42 years in age. But we are bound by our collective rage about what is happening to our…

I Got to Be a Fly on the Wall in a Room Full of Teachers

On a recent afternoon, I spent two hours listening to eight public school teachers talk about their work. All but one of them teaches in…

Whether You Call It ‘Vouchers’ or Not, It’s Time to Ask Some Tough Questions in Illinois

Recently, the negatively-charged term “voucher” has been morphing into the more positive term “scholarship program.” In the case of my home state of Illinois, before…

We Aren’t the First and We Won’t Be the Last Family to Leave the Public School System

We are not the first family and I know we will not be the last to transfer our children out of public school. Our eighth-grader and…

Chicago’s Solorio High School Showed Me Exactly the Kind of Teacher I Want to Be

What I loved about Solorio was that I really got to know the teachers. Teachers wouldn’t talk down to us. It wasn’t lecture style. We…

Everyone Is Entitled to an Opinion on Charter Schools But Parents Deserve the Final Say

Over the last year we’ve seen the NAACP come out forcefully against charter schools. We’ve seen the Trump administration support choice in ways that have…

This New Jersey Parent Summit Had Parents Fired Up and Ready to Go

Awesome…Uplifting…Informative…Amazing…Spectacular…Inspirational…Wonderful…Successful…these are just some of the words parents used to describe the New Jersey Parent Summit. Upon arrival, attendees received gift bags full of “swag”…

Stop Scapegoating Charter Schools and Fix Schools That Are Really Failing Children

There is a crisis in California’s public education system. According to teachers unions and the NAACP, the crisis involves an attempted takeover of the public…