Just Equations National Policy Director pens an op-ed for Scary Mommy, where she shares her perspective as an education policy expert and Black mom making the decision to move her kids from an affluent school to a more racially diverse school.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic death of George Floyd, my husband and I decided to pull our four Black children out of Williamsville Central, arguably the highest performing school district in Western New York. We moved them to a more racially diverse, mixed achievement school that had all the same courses and an academically competitive environment. It also offered something that my children desperately needed: an opportunity to have Black friends, enjoy Black culture, and understand their Black identity organically.
But there was something else I couldn’t put my finger on. That something became clear after my work on Governor Cuomo’s advisory council on reopening schools involved participating in district-parent Zoom meetings across the state—Williamsville included.
Though every district faced the same issues around reopening schools, the Zoom meetings revealed a tale of two pandemics: Most of them began with superintendents announcing that due to COVID-19 there would be significant changes to the instructional schedule, but they diverged from there.
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