We must offer a great education to all, not just the privileged or connected, to secure city’s future

Walter Kimbrough:

I had a conversation with Rev. Eugene Rivers of Boston a few years ago after he did an opening convocation at my previous institution. We talked about living in the communities we serve, and what that means for the schooling options for your children. He said, “Get your kids into the best schools you can afford. Don’t feel guilty about that.”

Recently on a visit home to speak for my high school alumni association, my closest classmate met me for dinner. She spoke about having her seventh-grader attending a $25,000 a year school, with the youngest about to start kindergarten, probably going to the same school. She spoke of many of our classmates, public high school graduates, in the Atlanta suburbs doing likewise.

They are paying college tuition for 12 years — to get their children ready for college.