Diversity, equity and inclusion programs continue to be attacked at the federal and state level, but in Charlotte, officials with the Center for Racial Equity in Education, or CREED, say efforts to end DEI have affected their organization but not their plans to persist in their work to end racism in education.
That includes supporting educators through equity training, providing resources to recruit and retain more teachers of color and advocating for year-round teaching of Black history. In this interview with WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn, CREED’s executive director Dr. James Ford, discusses their latest Impact Report on equity efforts on the secondary and higher education levels and how current legislative policies are affecting their work.
Dr. James Ford: Since '20-'21, which was the emergence of the so-called anti-CRT movement, organizations like ours have naturally been in the crosshairs. And it has impacted our work in some regard because we advocate for teaching, inclusive and representative history. And so I think that it's in some cases sent a chilling effect on schools and districts who might otherwise want a partner or be interested in utilizing our resources, but ultimately this is the work that we do. It hasn't prevented us from moving forward, and I think that our report indicates that we've still been able to be impactful despite that.
Gwendolyn Glenn: Are there concerns?
Ford: Absolutely. You know the book bans that we've seen attempted session after session are areas of grave concern for us. We’ve tried to weigh in on those from a policy perspective and talk about the potential impact for students of color, but we're going to be here for a while.
Glenn: And CRT, critical race theory, is what you were referring to.
Ford: Absolutely — which is not being taught in schools.
Glenn: Well, let's talk about some of the legislative issues you brought up in your Impact Report. You talked about school vouchers. More people who have higher incomes will qualify for these vouchers.
Ford: The courts, I think, have already determined that our schools are underfunded in North Carolina. And so the notion of taking monies away that otherwise would be allocated for public schools and funding them, (private schools) an additional half a billion dollars going into school vouchers, and they mostly will go to wealthy people and unaccountable schools — that just undermines that core mission and core sense of the common good. So, it's concerning.
Glenn: Now you did a poll in terms of vouchers. What did your poll find?
Ford: Fifty-seven percent support public schools being supported with public funds instead of spending money on private schools.
Glenn: Now, this comes at a time when there are attacks on DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion. What did you find out on that issue?
Ford: So, we haven't actually polled on that particular issue. We polled on CRT, we polled on the teaching of the histories of racism — and we found that, in North Carolina, most voters actually don't think that it's a bad thing to teach about the history of racism. In fact, most think that it won't make them more jaded or have hurt feelings — that it actually will make people more empathetic and more informed about how to avoid making those same mistakes. It just goes to show that these policies are out of step with the sentiments of the general public, especially in North Carolina, which I think some people might find surprising.
Glenn: Now, what did your Impact Report find in terms of LGBTQ students and policies or changes, or other factors affecting that group of students?
Ford: Yeah. So, what we found throughout the year in our analysis of the bills working their way across the country was that, at the same time so-called anti-CRT bills were being pushed through various state Houses that also — legislation targeting LGBTQ folks was accompanying those — and we think that some of the survey data captured by the state of North Carolina — the Youth Risk Assessment— shows that the vast majority of students considering suicide are overwhelmingly a part of that community.
Glenn: Now, you also did a poll on suspensions. And in the report, you talked about pre-K through third grade and whether or not suspensions have a positive effect on behavior. Tell us about that.
Ford: North Carolina is one of those places where some districts have moratoriums on suspensions for pre-K through third grade, while many do not.
Exclusionary discipline has not been proven, through decades of research, to have any sort of positive impact on the behavior of students. And whereas some might use the excuse that it's removing the bad apple so other kids can learn, there hasn't been any proof to support that, either. We have advocated and continue to advocate for an appeal process for short-term suspensions and a moratorium on pre-K to third grade suspensions.
Glenn: What are you doing to address some of these issues you brought up in your report?
Ford: We're part of a coalition called the HEAL Together North Carolina Coalition that advocates for honest and inclusive education and fully funding public schools. And so, we now have a presence in 71 of the 100 districts in North Carolina, and we have trained over 750 members.
Glenn: And you're training them to do what exactly?
Ford: Training them on how to get involved and use their voice as a part of local education policy making; organize themselves, and show up at local school boards; how to write op-eds; to advocate for various policies that have been demonstrated to improve and help the very populations that have been negatively impacted. One of the things that we didn't discuss is our work in the higher education space. CREED is the leader of an initiative called the NC 10, a collaborative of all 10 fully-accredited Historically Black Colleges and Universities in North Carolina. And so, we have agendas that relate to improving student performance, development, and fundraising for HBCUs, but also policy that benefits HBCUs and helps to raise their prominence in the state.
For the second year in a row now, we just had a HBCU advocacy day at the Capitol, where representatives from all 10 of the HBCUs showed up at the Capitol, had audience with the legislators from both parties to talk about the needs of HBCUs and what is required to make sure that they exist long into the future — both the public and the private ones.
So, generally speaking, enrollment is up at most of the schools, they continue to find ways to innovate — from research to graduation and innovative programming. But our job is to ensure that their shared history and unique cultural capital help them find ways to connect and collaborate, so they can improve and support each other.
