Investing in Public Education as an Act of Resistance
article withdrawn from The Hill & Lake Press because of social anxiety... but underlying beliefs are still deeply held
Since his inauguration, President Trump’s nationalist agenda has gained traction like we have never before seen in the United States. Trump is skilled and strategic in his efforts to divide us. As we swim through the overwhelm, keep our politicians’ phones ringing off the hook, send restorative vibes Cory Booker’s direction, and pursue opportunities to create rather than destroy, to connect rather than crumble, I write here to offer a humble suggestion: as an act of resistance, choose public schools.
My three children currently attend three different Minneapolis Public Schools. At our community elementary school, over half of my youngest child’s classmates are students of color. My middle child is one of four White eighth graders at his middle school, whose student population is 90% global majority. My oldest child attends an arts magnet high school in downtown Minneapolis; its racial and socioeconomic composition more closely reflects that of MPS as a whole, and the school serves many individuals who identify as LGBTQIA+.
There are dozens of ways to describe a school and each way has its limits. A school is, of course, much more than its demographics. Each of our schools is its own unique, loving, dynamic community. Our teachers are talented and committed. My children are getting a great education. I focus on the demographics of these schools, however, because I believe it is a public school’s racial and socioeconomic diversity that affords children an inherently democratic space within which to learn and grow. And right now, I believe our every step must be directed towards democracy.
Because of their public education, my children are critically thinking, developing their own identities, and experiencing the world beyond the bubble of racial and economic privilege they generally occupy, just two blocks from Bde Maka Ska. When they hear about mass deportations, my children appreciate that one quarter of their classmates are new to country, and may face an uncertain future as a result of the current administration’s priorities. When we read Trump’s Executive Order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” they understand its goal is to end the teaching of actual American history. When Congress debates closing the Department of Education, we cannot listen with disinterest, knowing it’s the source of 21% of our elementary school’s budget. My children know what’s what, and not just because I tell them.
Writer Sarah Thankham Mathews recently shared online how she’s finding hope within the diversity that defines America. “Something that gives me some slender comfort,” she writes, “is that so far, full fascism has historically never taken hold in a place as diverse as the present-day U.S. There is simply so much difference, so many groups with various and shifting alliances, and in the present day a lack of a clear united majority along an identitarian line, that it produces a comparatively ungovernable mass. This is one reason among many to maintain relationships and coalitions across difference.”
In Minneapolis, we have a lot of school options. Less than 50% of children zoned for our elementary school actually attend it, and a much smaller percentage (single digits) of our neighborhoods’ middle and high schoolers stick with MPS. I understand that the current political climate makes it hard to choose institutions on the chopping block. Moreover, the existing inequities within our district present real complications. I recognize that if you are looking for them, you can find reasons to leave.
For our family, continuing to choose Minneapolis Public Schools gives us an opportunity to combat the division that those in power are presently orchestrating. Every day, at an ultra-local level, we get to connect and coalesce across racial, socioeconomic, gender, religious, ideological, cultural, and ability difference. We get to embrace the vastness and difference that characterize the great city of Minneapolis. Choosing MPS is leaning into the messy, hard, wonderful work of democracy. And it’s an opportunity to resist the alternative.
Here are some resources that keep me motivated:
It all started in law school, with Prof. Myron Orfield…
Integrated Schools (everything they produce is inspiring, but this podcast with Eve Ewing is recent and soooo good)
Courtney Martin’s Learning in Public - here’s a video that sums it up