Opinion: Let’s use our privilege to make virtual learning equal for all in Charlotte

First, some quick context: We are both former educators who collectively spent nearly a decade teaching in North Carolina Title I schools, a federal funding designation granted to schools where at least 75% of students come from economically disadvantaged households. Additionally, we are both white middle-class moms who care deeply about educational equity.

COVID-19 has shone a harsh light on the racial inequities that exist within healthcare, with coronavirus hospitalization rates of BIPOC sitting approximately 5 times higher than that of non-Hispanic white persons, according to the CDC. Now, in the wake of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools decision to reopen with remote learning for the upcoming school year, that spotlight is illuminating the flagrant disparities within our education system.

Immediately following the decision to go virtual indefinitely, NextDoor listservs and Facebook groups were ablaze with affluent parents searching for tutors to teach their children in privately paid learning “pods.” Thus commenced the deluge of spreadsheets, job descriptions (some offering benefits) and sign-up forms. Top-notch community organizing — nimble, focused, strategic and swift.

Yet a sizable portion of CMS families are not in a financial position to hire a private teacher. One parent friend — a single mom who works an hourly-wage service industry job — shared that she is struggling to afford the higher electricity bills resulting from her school-aged children now being home all day. Buying into a learning pod? Not an option.

Parents everywhere are facing impossible choices regarding the upcoming school year. And at the same time, this self-selected learning pod model threatens to send our schools back to pre-Brown v. Board of Education days.

It is no secret that the vast majority of CMS schools are already hyper-segregated. Druid Hills K-8, for example, had just one white student enrolled last year, according to the 2019-2020 CMS School Diversity Report. Statesville Road Elementary School had three white students out of a total enrollment of 508. On the other side of town, 5% of students at Elizabeth Lane Elementary are Black, even though Black students make up 36% of total CMS enrollment. A 2018 report from the N.C. Justice Center’s Education & Law Project found that CMS was “by far the most racially segregated district in the state.”

As former Title I educators, we’ve seen firsthand the grave disparities that existed within our schools pre-COVID and the nearly insurmountable challenges that students living in poverty face each day. Saying that some students lack internet access does not paint the full picture of what they are up against. Many of our former students carry the heavy burdens accompanying our country’s history of racial oppression: trauma, housing insecurity and food scarcity, among others. It is no exaggeration that the difference between those able to afford private learning pods and those unable to keep the lights on is a matter of life and death.

Of course, it does not have to be this way. If we say that Black Lives Matter, then we must also demand that BIPOC students are afforded the same educational opportunities as our own children. Lawn signs and social media posts are great, but they mean nothing if we are not organizing for BIPOC children with the same fierce urgency as we are for our own.

Now is the time to use our privilege to guarantee that every child in CMS gets an excellent education this year. Contact your child’s teacher to see how you can best support your child’s classmates who might not have the same resources you do. Use PTA finances to establish a COVID-relief fund for families and schools in need. Advocate for the district to provide innovative tutoring solutions for the students who need it most. Ask your school board representative what is being done to ensure that our most vulnerable children are not left behind. Demand that CMS be accountable for each of the 148,000+ students enrolled in the district. Only accept for all children what you would accept for your own.

Sara Kay Mooney, an alumna of Davidson College and Teach For America, lives and works in East Charlotte. Follow her on Twitter @sarakaymooney.

Ensley Henderson is an alumna of Teach for America and is now a yoga teacher and writer living in Charlotte.

This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 10:59 AM.