This is important because almost 40 percent of the 45.5 percent of black public school students statewide attend school in one of our districts.
While we work hard daily to serve all students regardless of race, we do recognize and accept a higher calling to ensure we focus intently on serving children who look like us and look up to us as figures of authority in their own towns and cities.
Too many times, the only black people our young people see on a regular basis are being shown on the local news in a negative light.
We decided to work with one another to establish best practices to educate students mired in poverty while advocating for and implementing policies that will accelerate the pace of civil rights acquisition in education. Some of these policies include a more flexible funding model and access to high-quality early childhood services and financial aid opportunities.