Kelly Aims on the Importance of School Choice

An op ed along the same lines by one of the first TFA corps members, Kelly Amis:

More than half a century later, we know that the mandate of Brown was often circumvented in practice and its promise unfulfilled; when faced with integration at the school level, whites fled urban districts in droves, incidentally taking their higher tax base—and public school funding—with them.

However, even schools that did achieve racial diversity on paper could relegate black students to lower tracks or classrooms with lower expectations and less effective teachers.

Sadly, these practices continue today. I have been astonished by the number of examples shared with me by students and former students whom I’ve interviewed for my documentary film series TEACHED.

Brandon Johns, an up-and-coming NAACP lawyer, explained that he was “put aside” in a separate classroom with other black students in their majority-white Philadelphia neighborhood school, “supposedly for behavior issues.” There was no official procedure or notification given to Brandon’s or the other students’ parents.

Those who stood in doorways to keep our children out are now standing in the doorway to prevent our children from leaving schools that are failing them.

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