Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 7-5-19

Protecting Our Greatest Asset
I’m proud to lead an or- ganization whose mission is to protect one of society’s greatest assets; the public schools. As the President of the Florida Education Asso- ciation, I’m focused on pre- serving the asset and staying on the path to positive change. Our team works hard to improve our schools and that includes a strong commitment to providing every child with a quality ed- ucation. And believe me, that is a daily fight in everyone of our 67 counties.
People single me out as the first African American President of FEA but that distinction is more than a benchmark. It gives me a unique perspective and fuels my passion for education be-
people in particular. Our his- tory is replete with the efforts to prevent the education of African Americans, because knowledge is a powerful weapon against all barriers and it can never be taken away. That empowerment plays out in our classrooms giving all of our children a shot at the American dream. But there are efforts to re- verse the gains we’ve made. I have to tell you; they are alarming and disturbing. These obstructions to a qual- ity education are reemerging in plain sight.
I think about our stu- dents and teachers every time I walk into the capitol to face politicians bent on pri- vatizing a system that teaches well over 2.7 million
children a year. We forget that our doors are open to all Florida children regardless of disability, race or class. We do not discriminate. We need every dime to prepare our students to compete in an evolving marketplace. Pri- vatization is getting in the way of that progress because it takes some of us, but not all of us.
Privatizing public schools has been a 20-year strategy where billions of our tax dol- lars are siphoned from the classrooms and deposited in private school bank ac- counts. They are chipping away at the future and the promise of opportunity for all. But the public schools are
not for profit. And, public schools do not pick and choose which students are to be educated. The private un- regulated schools enroll stu- dents who often want to return to the public-school system because of bad expe- riences. Describing vouchers as scholarship opportunities does not disguise the fact that they discriminate, segre- gate and provide an exit strategy for White students at the expense of taxpayers.
As stakeholders, educa- tion will have a big influence on what the future holds for our families. We are looking for partners in this fight for public schools and we need your help.
BY FEDRICK INGRAM
President, Florida Education Association
cause of the critical role it continues to play in the lives of African Americans and all people of color. An education is the gateway to opportuni- ties that would otherwise be out of reach for minority
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