While the sacred obligation of democracy must be honored by counting every last ballot, it’s clear that Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris have won the presidential election. The results this year are historic: the first woman of color elected Vice President and the highest voter turnout in our nation’s history.
The urgency of the moment cannot be overstated. The challenges facing the new administration are monumental. More than 200,000 Americans — disproportionately Black and Latinx — have died due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This public health disaster has shuttered businesses, schools, and places of worship while draining the coffers of the very state and local agencies on the front lines combating it. The open wound of racist police violence demands a proper reckoning. The impact of these and other tragedies was needlessly magnified by the failures of the federal executive branch.
Two things are certain, as this most uncertain year draws to a close. One, the moment demands a new vision of racial, gender, and economic justice for America. Two, the public school — which this year shined in the roles of emergency shelter, food bank, hospital, and polling place — must be the centerpiece of that new vision.
The crises we face today are in large part a result of the inequities and injustices we’ve carried unresolved for generations. Long before the era of Zoom classrooms, a student’s race and zip code could tell you how likely they were to graduate, or face CONTINUE READING: Biden Promised Education Justice: It's Up to Us to Make Him Deliver | Schott Foundation for Public Education