‘We just want the same thing everybody else wants,’ organizations making sure Black families get quality education for their kids
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Specialists within the education sector want to make sure all students have a chance to receive academic instruction at a quality level. That can be hard when certain groups of students aren’t given the same educational opportunities.
Brandon Brown is the CEO of The Mind Trust tweeted out “The antipathy toward Black parents who advocate for better educational opportunities for their children is hard to stomach.”
The Mind Trust is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the quality of K-12 education in Indianapolis for students across the city. Diversity, equity and inclusion is important to their cause because they recognize the past and continued existence of institutional racism, discrimination, privilege, and oppression in the education system and society-at-large, in particular its adverse effects on our students of color. Their commitment to pursuing antiracism ensures present and future educational success for all students in Indianapolis.
Kimberly Graham, one of the directors from one of their community partners, Empowered Families weighed in on the statement.
“We do get a lot of push back with Black families, but there’s strength in numbers,” Graham said.
Empowered Families is another nonprofit that works directly with parents and families to help eliminate the education gap between students of color and their white peers. They empower all Indiana parents to become involved, be active and have a voice in their children’s education.
“[We] sit down and meet with the leadership at the schools. With the teachers at the schools. So you can go ahead and tell them what your concerns are. What they can do to work together,” Graham said.
By often holding “Parent Power” development trainings on different topics like funding equitable education or understanding the voting process for school boards, they connect with a lot of parents of color who otherwise wouldn’t have that support to be a part of their child’s school community.
Graham agrees with Brown’s statement on the push and so does Indiana parent, Latoya Hale Tahirou.
“I would definitely agree with that as a parent. My daughter is 18 and she’s graduating high school and I still feel like she’s not prepared for real life. Her education has not prepared her for a successful life and it makes me really really sad and frustrated,” Tahirou said.
She said as a parent she’s been advocating for her daughter since the 3rd grade making sure her concerns were heard when it came to the quality of learning her daughter received. As a result of feeling like she hasn’t been heard through the years, her daughter’s been to multiple schools in an effort to try to find the right fit.
“I feel like we have to be honest about the topic. When you look at the state of Indiana and you look at the city of Indianapolis the disparities that exist are not by accident,” Tahirou said.
She said communities of color have been struggling across the board economically, which affects education.
“We just want the same thing everybody else wants,” Graham said.