Pedro Noguera: ‘Put up or shut up’ — a $1 trillion investment to help American kids in poverty - The Washington Post

‘Put up or shut up’ — a $1 trillion investment to help American kids in poverty - The Washington Post

‘Put up or shut up’ — a $1 trillion investment to help kids in poverty

Pedro Noguera is dean of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California and Robert Boyd is president of the School-Based Health Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of young people through school-based health care.

Noguera and Boyd, who have each spent decades working to advance opportunities for students of color and those from low-income families, are sick and tired of “rhetoric without commitment” they hear from politicians who talk about how important it is to help kids but don’t do anything about it.

In recent months, Congress has approved trillions of economic stimulus dollars, but in this post, Noguera and Boyd argue for a different kind of public investment they say is way overdue. Here’s their piece.

By Robert Boyd and Pedro Noguera

This is the point in America’s election cycle when political candidates love talking about the importance of giving a great education to all kids, especially children of color and children from low-income families.

A solid education, they say, will enable students to go to college and access career opportunities. Better schools, they say, will pay off in a stronger economy and healthier citizens, perhaps even increase civic participation and create more vibrant communities. A few will even talk about their commitment to social justice and fundamental human rights.

Some might even mean it.

As men of color who have dedicated our lives to advancing opportunity, we have heard variations on these statements echoed most of our six decades on this earth. Over. And over. And yet still over again. We are weary of rhetoric without commitment. We need action, action in the form of a massive public investment that actually covers what it costs for children to have quality schools and be safe and healthy.

So, with all due respect America: put up or shut up.

Our ask is simple and reasonable: a trillion-dollar investment in the education and health care of CONTINUE READING: ‘Put up or shut up’ — a $1 trillion investment to help American kids in poverty - The Washington Post