The American education system is fundamentally broken—rigged to benefit the powerful at the expense of the marginalized.
The American education system is a rigged game. Rigged by funding formulas and tax structures that empower the wealthy with fully resourced schools and disenfranchise the poor with crumbling educational infrastructures, resources, and inexperienced teachers. Rigged by racial, economic, and housing segregation that created multitiered systems—one for the privileged few, the other for the underprivileged many.
Rigged by whitewashed education curricula that omitted or distorted the truth about the nation’s history and ignores the true role people of color have played in the national’s collective history and current events. Rigged by teacher preparatory programs and teacher pipelines that underprepare teachers and underrecruit teachers of color.
Rigged by a national apathy to poverty, its inherent trauma, and its impact on children. Rigged, perhaps most of all, by the lies some people tell themselves and the stories they tell their children.
Actions For Change
Become a hyperlocal activist for change and help ensure a bright future for every student. Written for educators at all levels, this resource dives into the American education system, exposing the history of discrimination and offering strategies for establishing financially and academically equitable learning environments. Readers will be empowered with specific action steps to educate themselves and others and to move toward inclusion and cultural relevance in your school community.
“If a child cannot learn the way we teach, we had better teach the way a child can learn.”
— Ignacio Estrada (seen in Prof. Feldman’s room)