Rebecca Carroll invited me to speak on elementary school teacher Karen Fitzgibbons and her comments about the incidents in McKinney, TX. Here’s an excerpt:

But, as a teacher who’s not only taught for 10 years, but who has done educational activism work for about seven of those years, I’ve observed the vitriolic responses of even using the word “race” except when I dissent on Race To The Top, President Obama’s educational mandate that included lifting charter school caps across states, increasing stakes for standardized testing, and using wayward data to evaluate and eliminate teachers. Yet, the other race, the one that implicates reform advocates and critics alike, touches a centuries-old nerve. We have yet to create school systems that genuinely assert agency for children of color (and this includes AAPI, Native American, and Latino students), and develops learning spaces for these stakeholders. While everyone struggles to catch a piece of the #BlackLivesMatter action, folks in the education space often lack the reflection and integrity to look in the mirror and say, “We’ve done wrong by them.”

Read more here and let me know what you think.