Continuing inequities in our nation's public schools are a moral injustice that Christians are called to address, says the founder of The Expectations Project.
July 15, 2014
FaithandLeadership.com
Sixty years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, massive inequities still persist in public education, creating a moral injustice that Christians are called to address, says Nicole Baker Fulgham.
"When you realize that half of the kids in low-income communities don't graduate from high school," Fulgham said, "we have to ask ourselves as a nation, as people of faith, do we believe in a God that somehow just gave academic and intellectual potential to kids with more money or kids who are not black or brown?"
For Christians and other people of faith, the vast differences in public education cannot be allowed to continue, said Fulgham, the founder and president of The Expectations Project. The nonprofit organization mobilizes people of faith to support public education and help eliminate educational inequity in the United States.
"From a purely moral standpoint, that's an injustice that we as people of faith should be acting to eliminate," she said.
Before launching The Expectations Project in 2011, Fulgham worked for Teach For America for seven years, initially as vice president of training and support and later as vice president of faith community relations.
Fulgham spoke with Faith & Leadership recently about The Expectations Project. The following is an edited transcript.
Q: The mission of The Expectations Project is "to mobilize and equip people of faith to help eliminate inequity in public education." How do you do that?
We take a local approach. We're in Washington, D.C., and Indianapolis full time, but have also consulted in four other cities so far.
We identify clergy who are interested in education issues and take folks through our theory of change, which is awareness, action and then advocacy.
The awareness piece is a lot of information sharing, talking about education issues in the context of faith and how it plays out for kids in poorer communities, and making sure that folks understand the problem.
Once awareness grows, we build our network and connect people to how they can take action. So many congregations already volunteer with schools, we try to share best practices.
We build partnerships and encourage our congregations to volunteer through those existing programs. Our theory is that the more involved people are in spending time in a public school system, the better they will be at advocating for systemic change, which is our last component.
It's one thing to volunteer to tutor kids in preschool, but we can have an even broader impact if we are also advocating for more funding for preschool.
So throughout the process, we educate our clergy on the issues and help them utilize their bully pulpit, meet with decision makers, and mobilize their congregations to take action, to show that the faith community believes this broader systemic change needs to happen.
Q: Your organization describes the academic achievement gap as a moral injustice. How so?
When you look at the way things are in our country, we essentially have two public school systems. We're 60 years past the Brown v. Board of Education decision, but we still have massive inequities across the lines of race and class.
When you realize that half of the kids in low-income communities don't graduate from high school -- and even fewer African-American boys -- we have to ask ourselves as a nation, as people of faith, do we believe in a God that somehow just gave academic and intellectual potential to kids with more money or kids who are not black or brown?
Of course not. We look at the Bible, and every faith tradition talks about the inherent potential that we all have. I don't believe that God distributed that based on race or family income.
So given all that, there is definitely moral injustice at play, because the system we have and the outcomes we're seeing are very much skewed toward certain groups of kids. For those of us who believe all kids have potential, that can't stand. We cannot continue to let that happen. From a purely moral standpoint, that's an injustice that we as people of faith should be acting to eliminate.
