Where we are headed today
in public education
in particular, I think,
is a slippery slope we are going
to use the public school system
as an extension of our basically
our our broader politics you
know how we feel about charter
schools we'd like to know how
you feel and lot of these
charter schools are
significantly underperforming
in a state like Illinois with
a very strong Democratic party
presence and strong teacher
unions we are going to push that
ideology through our public
school system.
If I'm president Betsy divorcees
whole notion from charter
schools to this are gone.
This is much more than
an education and a certification
of teacher standards it's really
it sounds like to me trying
to build the political base are
so be troubled as long
as systemic racism is allowed
to persist we need to make
equity and justice part of what
we do every day the state
of Illinois has proposed these
these standards which
essentially will govern how
teachers are able to get
licensure in Illinois
they're intentionally I think
vague they use the word
progressive and so they want
teachers to understand and teach
progressive viewpoints that that
has an overtly political meaning
to it the word progressive
they're not judged
on their merits teachers can
accept social justice work
as part of the grade as opposed
to some firm Patrick the second
word they use is activist
for focusing on activism that is
one sided where they're not even
hearing the other side
because only one side matters
if you affect change with no
sort of tangible idea about how
you're actually going to solve
a problem you've identified you
very likely stand to make
the problem much worse it does
no good to have a bunch
of illiterate revolutionaries
the public school system
and particularly teachers should
not be put in positions
to dictate one view
and that's how you become
culturally competent
and that's the problem
let's just flip the script
on this if the state government
of Alabama decided that teachers
be trained in and have certain
beliefs about life, about
the Second Amendment about what
you might consider to be more
culturally conservative issues
there would be outrage
and rightfully so you know you
don't want that
in your classroom you want
your kids to you critical
thinking learn all sides learn
how to beat all sides it's one
thing to tell teachers that they
should be aware of cultural
differences it's another thing
entirely to tell teachers that
they need to constantly be aware
of their own unconscious bias I
can be culturally respectful
of these individuals and treat
them as individuals while also
thinking be,
I am an oppressor and I am
irrevocably tainted
by my my certain aspects
of my identity
and and generations past those
are not irreconcilable views
in one Cuban less than 40%
of students in this state
by the time they enter fourth
grade are reading grade level
and that persists throughout
their entire time in school when
we start to elevate sort of this
this wackiness or this this
ideology of we need to have
activists and that sort of deal
we are completely missing what
is just foundational are we
losing teachers absolutely
I've been told before that I
would be a good teacher so I
would not be a teacher
in a public school if it meant
that on pain of losing my job I
would have to teach people
things and tell people things I
knew were false we're in this
like weird time now where
the people who are crying foul
the loudest on equity are
the people who are saying you
know there's so much injustice
in this country are the same one
saying,
well you know black kids
and Hispanic kids and poor kids
they just can't learn
because they're in poverty
or they just can't learn
because their mom is
or their dad is in jail or they
just can't learn because they
don't get three meals a day all
these things are important
for sure but there are schools
all around this country that are
proving that very thing that
they're proving it wrong.
One of the things that that
frustrates me is that when we
have people who say they are
working on our behalf but they
constantly and continually keep
lowering the standards
for our children
as if our children are not smart
enough as if they're not bright
enough and intelligent enough
to to to meet the standard and I
think those type of policies
hinder us in the long run.
There are a lot of you all
in here that have overcome some
crazy obstacles and there are
some of y'all in here that have
overcome some crazy things
and it took a lot for you all
to be sitting here today Chicago
Public school systems have
failed young black males
for a child to make it all
the way to high school
in a system and not be able
to read that is a total failure
we decided that we needed
a charter school in our church
simply because there were
so many young people who were
dropping out of school back I
had a student who came
in and they.