Jan 9, 2018 12:00:00 AM
Presidential candidates rarely talk about education because experts and pundits (and voters!) tell them that
Americans don’t vote on education issues. It’s maddening, I know. But Oprah could change that. At the height of her show, she talked with brutal honesty about the gut-wrenching statistics that surround this country’s Black boys and young men. She celebrated the broken cycles of poverty and dependency as well as the liberty that only education can provide. She spent 26 years on her set being inspired by phenomenal educators and sharing that inspiration with all of us. We met some of the boldest, most courageous and hardest-working educators on her show. I remember running out to buy their books (these were the pre-Amazon days) after seeing them on the show. But perhaps more than anything, Oprah celebrated people who believed in children—all children. Because she believes that children rise to the expectations set for them. And she knows that children are capable of amazing things even when they are poor and Black like she was, sitting on the linoleum floor and watching Sydney Poitier win the Oscar in 1964.
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Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin Feinberg and Levin co-founded the KIPP network of charter schools. More than 87 percent of KIPP students come from low-income families. To date, more than 90 percent of the KIPPsters graduated high school and more than 80 percent have gone to college. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6LkxMyPzmM________________________________________________________
Michelle Rhee Rhee is a former educator and advocate for education reform. She was chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools from 2007 to 2010. She founded the nonprofit Students First. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPsqO17f6Lw________________________________________________________
Geoffrey Canada Since 1990, Canada has been the president of the Harlem Children’s Zone in Harlem, New York, an organization that states its goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWg3baKLBEk________________________________________________________
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