Stories
-
- Racial Justice
School Vouchers and the Efforts to Undermine Public Education
Vouchers are part of a broader effort to dismantle public schools, moving public taxpayer funds into private for-profit institutions. This is the third of three articles on public schools as a common good, which explore the possibilities and threats to public education.
-
- Racial Justice
Understanding How Schools Are Labeled
What goes into the process of labeling schools, and how reliable are those labels — especially when a school is labeled as “failing”? This is the second of three articles on public schools as a common good, which explore the possibilities and threats to public education.
-
- Dismantling White Supremacy
Georgia’s youngest state lawmaker an educator, community organizer first
A framed photo of Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy on the first desegregated bus ride after the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended hangs on the wall of Georgia state Rep. Bryce Berry’s office. It was a graduation gift Berry brought with him to the Georgia State Capitol when he was sworn in this year…
-
- Racial Justice
Why Public Schools Matter
Public schools are an ideal and vital mechanism for achieving a thriving democracy. This is the first of three articles on public schools as a common good, which explore the possibilities and threats to public education.
-
- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
A fun new game in Mississippi tests the voter education of young people
The sound of raised voices echoed through the lecture hall as a battle ensued on the stage. Opponents threw barbs and jabs, desperate to steal their rivals’ earnings in a winner-take-all game of wits. The subject? Government. “Explain the role of a sheriff and the level of government to which the sheriff belongs,” said Shonna…
-
- Dismantling White Supremacy
- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Alabama Advocacy Institute fellows foster strength in their communities
Before 2005, Pearlington, Mississippi, wasn’t known for much — if at all. The small riverside town, population 1,153, hugs the southern corner of the state’s western border with Louisiana near the mouth of the Pearl River. When Warren Tidwell arrived that fall, it was mostly rubble. After Hurricane Katrina made its second landfall a couple…
-
- Dismantling White Supremacy
‘Whose Heritage?’ report spotlights ‘triumphs even in the darkest of times’
When Donald Trump won a second term in the White House, he made very clear that he would be fighting to overturn what he saw as injustices done in the name of “woke.” His executive orders, the fiat he has used to fuel a campaign of attacks on his perceived foes and their successes, are…
-
- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
School system in Louisiana still failing to educate students with disabilities
Terra Boyd, a former New Orleans-area teacher, has spent the past two years of her retirement fighting for her grandson against his public charter school. The school, she says, has failed to educate him under the terms of his Individualized Education Program (IEP) — a violation of federal laws for children with disabilities. Boyd even…
-
- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Federal budget cuts will hurt most Americans but make rich people wealthier
Editor’s note: This is the sixth story in the “Cuts & Consequences” series about the effects that federal spending reductions would have on people living in the Deep South. When Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term in office on Jan. 20, he immediately began taking an ax to the country’s regulatory agencies…
-
- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Farmers not feeling the love as federal program cuts, tariffs threaten income
Editor’s note: This is the fifth story in the “Cuts & Consequences” series about the effects that federal spending reductions would have on people living in the Deep South. Rafael Guerrero and his four brothers had worked as agricultural harvesters their whole lives. But as the world was coming out of its COVID-19 bubble in…
