Outrage: Too Many Kids on the Street
There are
1.3 million students in America without homes.
Nate Bowling teaches 12 of them.
I think I’m plugged into what’s going on with my students, but I realized in that moment that I had no idea...I felt frustrated because he was the 12th student this year to confide in me that they were homeless.
It makes me wonder what will happen with the kids being
separated from their parents at the border. According to
NPR, “Children begin at border patrol facilities, are transferred to longer-term shelters and are supposed to eventually be placed with families or sponsors.” Will they someday become homeless, too, adding to the problem? It’s a real possibility because this country has its priorities f’d up. With millions of kids already living on the streets, why is Trump investing much-needed resources into menacing people at the border? Why not use that money to build permanent housing for homeless youth? Or open more schools
like this one? I get it, border control is an issue. But we have kids that can’t even focus on going to school because they need to survive the night. And teachers like Nate Bowling drive themselves crazy trying save each and every student.
Hope: I Got 99 Schools and They Need New Names
It’s happening. Slowly but surely. There are 100 public schools in America still
named for Confederate leaders. Well, make that 99. The latest to come tumbling down is
J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School in Richmond, Virginia—the former capital of the Confederacy. It’s being renamed Barack Obama Elementary School. I’m sure the far-right racists and Barack haters will love that, LOL! Still, it’s bittersweet for me. Because [pullquote]in the same week we observed
Juneteenth and celebrated the abolishment of slavery, we are still constantly reminded that we’re not fully emancipated in America.[/pullquote] This is progress. But there’s much work to be done. My friend
Nehemiah Frank has fought tirelessly to change the name of Robert E. Lee Elementary School in Tulsa, but so far they only agreed to remove the first name (same thing happened in
San Antonio). Do they really think the Black families sending their kids to Lee School won’t feel the sting of 250 years of oppression? Please. But Richmond still gives me hope that the other 99 will come down soon.