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Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last book, "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?" was
prescient in that it laid out his vision of the large house of
America in which we all have to live together in peace and harmony
irrespective of our race and ethnicity, creed, and equality of
socioeconomic status. He dedicated his life to nonviolent struggle,
and his effort to achieve these ends led to his assassination.
We
have just celebrated the national holiday of his birthday and the end
of the four-year autocratic reign of our recently departed President,
Donald J. Trump. While in office, Trump did severe damage to public
education and our political institutions, and he did his best to lead
the nation as an autocrat. His tenure is a blot on America’s
legacy.
As
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris begin their
term, they will face major challenges in repairing the harm Trump has
done. While addressing the coronavirus pandemic, public education
must be high on their list of priorities. Having already stated that
they are eager to reopen the nation’s public schools, they must
recognize that it is imperative that they not leave the schools as
they are.
The
schools of children from low-income families of color - Native
American, Latinx, African American, and Asian and Pacific Islanders -
who have been disproportionately savaged by COVID-19 need to be
upgraded in terms of resources. Dr. King viewed public education as
essential to securing and maintaining the rights of minority and
majority citizens alike. He wanted it funded and maintained for the
benefit of all.
Trump’s
Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, undermined these efforts in every
way she could - relaxing civil rights protections, reducing federal
support of K-12 public education and redirecting and increasing
federal funding to charter, voucher, and other private schools. But
one of her major failures was to ignore the lead crisis in our
schools.
Although
it emerged as a public health crisis during the Obama-Biden
administration, it was largely ignored then and continues to be
ignored today. Lead content in water in low-income urban households
and schools in urban areas is ravaging a generation of minority
children who make up the overwhelming majority of all public school
students.
The
crisis was highlighted on April
25, 2014 when Flint,
Michigan’s
city
officials, at the direction of then Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (who is
currently on trial for negligence in this matter) switched the city’s
water
supply from
the Detroit Water
and Sewerage Department
to the contaminated Flint
River
in
order to save money in the operation of the struggling city. This
move sent lead-poisoned water
into
homes and ignited a massive public-health crisis
for the state
of Michigan.
Subsequent
investigations revealed that this disaster was also silently
poisoning children of color in other large cities - Newark,
Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Milwaukee - all helmed by Democratic
mayors, several of whom are African Americans. The attendant politics
hid this problem for the last seven years as conditions worsened.
Thus,
poor children of color are being victimized by the coronavirus and
lead poisoning simultaneously. Therefore, reopening schools, which is
first on the Biden-Harris education agenda, will have almost no
impact on this larger challenge to the education of the fastest
growing segments of the nation’s K-12 public education system -
children of color who currently make up a rapidly increasing
majority.
Next,
the Democrats, who are now in charge of all three branches of the
federal elected government, must develop strategies to maintain and
grow their slim majorities and adopt a fresh approach to their
politics in order to avoid the emergence of another Trump-like figure
who is smarter and smoother around the political and personal edges.
Three
are currently waiting in the wings of the Republican Party: Sens. Ted
Cruz (R-TX), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Tom Cotton (R-AR). Dr. King
belatedly recognized that such right-wing conservatives are crafty in
hiding their true reactionary and dictatorial plans. King’s
movements in Albany, Georgia in 1961 and Chicago, Illinois in 1966
failed.
In
his Albany, Georgia crusade, Police Chief Laurie Pritchett used more
humane methods to push back against civil rights protestors. Mayor
Richard J. Daley employed similar tactics in Chicago and also
deployed senior African American clergy, led by Rev. Joseph Jackson,
President of the National Baptist Convention, USA Inc. to criticize
King.
King
had been a former member of the organization, and Chicago-area Black
ministers were able to derail his 1966 Chicago, Illinois
demonstrations. The African American clergy attacked him from their
pulpits, further undermining him within Black and liberal White
communities. King carried these lessons with him throughout the rest
of his life.
Thus,
President Biden must be careful and highly skeptical in believing
that he can cajole and persuade Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to
support his agenda for the nation. Former President Barack Obama has
already learned the folly of that approach. Like Dr. King, Biden must
be mindful that when politically riven divisions are undergirded by
race and a Republican commitment to reinstituting political and
social Apartheid, he needs to focus on expanding his base.
Biden
must be ever mindful that he was the beneficiary of communities of
color’s intense dissatisfaction with an autocrat, strong
turnout, and Stacey Abrams and her allies winning of Georgia for him
twice: first, for his election and second, for his ability to govern.
He needs to recognize these realities, get his approach to public
education and politics right, and proceed accordingly.
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