Black Mothers Forum leaders hold a rally at the Lincoln Memorial in 2023.
A poll of single black women conducted in February found that a “majority of mothers” were not only concerned about their children's academic progress, but also worried about empowering their children to do things. It turned out that they overwhelmingly supported the candidate they supported. The study, conducted by the Current Project, an advocacy group focused on closing the economic gap for black single mothers, shows that decades of underperformance among black youth could spawn a new political movement. Suggests.
The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released in October 2022, are the lowest on record, revealing only 15% of Black students have reading proficiency and only 14% have math proficiency. said Keisha Thompson, a single mother in Fort Worth, Texas. politiko She said the main reasons she sent her children to charter schools were academic progress and access to gifted programming. Detroit resident Monique Taylor said she felt like her 5-year-old son was being “abandoned by the school system,” and that everything from transportation to tuition to district policies were dealt with in removing her son from his home. He talked about the difficulties he faced. He went to the school district before enrolling him in a nearby charter school. These issues are not new to black parents trying to get out of public schools. Nationwide, he serves the majority of the 3.7 million-plus students in more than 8,000 charter schools, most of them minorities. This has been true for him since the 1990s.
Black single mothers say they are “more likely to vote for candidates who support parents having more flexibility in choosing their children's education, including support for public school choice, charter schools, and private schools.” , that's big news. However, educational choice programs have long been popular among African American parents in general. The Milwaukee Parent Choice Program, established in 1990, was the first of its kind. The program aims to give black students the option of attending non-public schools as an alternative to the city's under-performing public schools, and currently enrolls 125 schools, which enroll more than 40% of Milwaukee students. serves nearly 30,000 students.
As of 2024, more than 32 states have implemented choice programs. In 2023 alone, 17 states introduced new or significantly updated choice programs to provide equal access to students. Florida, known for having one of the most extensive school choice programs in the nation, enrolls more black students who are selective than the total number of black students in 30 states, including Arkansas, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. .
Black parents' desire to access educational alternatives to public schools is nothing new. Since the 19th century, the movement for new educational options and the right to choose has continued to grow.
Janelle Wood, Brennayea Fairchild, and Kenisha Skaggs are the founders and leaders of the school and the school. … [+]
According to Black Minds Matter, 19th-century black organizers ignored legal repercussions and established new schools across the country to educate black children. In Illinois, schools were often established “free to all classes of white students,” especially after Congress attempted to limit property taxes to school funding. Rosenwald schools were established throughout the South, enrolled more than a third of the South's black children, and were staffed by black women. After the war, many black schools were closed,Brown v. Board of Education, a new wave of charter-like schools surfaced, often founded by less-known Black women leaders. Today, nearly 500 of her schools across the country, ranging from independents and charter schools to home schools and microschools, are founded and directed by Black women. Programs such as Black Mothers Forum, Melanin Village, and SOAR Academy, founded and run by Black women, are just three of the many initiatives that are experiencing remarkable growth to meet the ever-increasing demands of families. Just one example.
Education as a political issue typically ranks as one of voters' top concerns, and candidates are quick to embrace it. Everyone is an “education advocate,” but few define what exactly that means from a policy and program perspective. What is unusual about this poll is the specificity of the questions. As Sierra Lyons writes, respondents did not simply indicate a preference for pro-education candidates. 74, nearly 70% of Black single mothers with school-age children believe this country is headed in the wrong direction, and nearly 90% believe traditional approaches to public schools are not meeting the needs of students. 56% have considered changing their child's school. last year.
This represents a major shift in how education issues are defined, what voters expect from candidates, and what they expect from elected officials. Black mothers, single or not, are a powerful voting group. The fact that they are more likely to support candidates who support educational freedom should ring alarm bells for politicians everywhere this year.
