Stand and Alliance should consider a diverse pool in search for new leadership
/By Matt Halvorson
Two prominent Puget Sound education non-profits are looking to fill vacancies in their top office.
The Alliance for Education is seeking to replace Sara Morris, the organization’s president and CEO for the past six years. Stand for Children is looking to replace outgoing executive director Dave Powell.
I hope they interview and consider a group of candidates as diverse as the communities they work to serve and represent.
In seeking equity in education, our task, in truth, is to overcome systemic racism, systemic classism, systemic sexism — all the systemic isms. It’s no small mountain we’re all facing.
We’re at the foot of this massive mountain of systemic discrimination, and at the top lies educational equity. And probably lots of other treasures, for that matter.
Most people either can’t see the mountain, or they look at it and ignore it — it’s hard to tell which sometimes. Some make light of it. Others think we’re already at the top.
But a lot of people, I think, see the mountain for what it is — sort of, or as best we can make out through the smog. We have a good idea what it’s made of, but most of still don’t grasp all the different and nuanced ways our lives and our world are impacted by living in the shadow of that mountain. I know I don’t. And I definitely don’t know what to do about it, to the extent that sometimes it’s paralyzing even thinking about it.
But a lot of people are out there every day trying to climb the mountain. We’ve got a good basecamp and great beards, but our gear is broken and antiquated, because it turns out it’s actually a product of the same broken isms as the mountain itself. Our axles are made out of sexism, and we’re surprised they keep breaking. Our wagon tongues sprang from racism, and they’re in constant need of repair. They’re built of faulty materials by faulty methods. We’re out of ammunition, so we can’t even hunt for food. Someone died of scarlet fever. Other Oregon Trail references.
Still, somehow it feels right. We look at our wagons, and sure, they’re old, but they should be enough to get us up this mountain if we do it right. These wagons got us this far, after all. So, we spend money to repair them, to replace them, to research wagon outcomes and establish best-practices. We set up non-profits that will service the wagons on the way up — especially the most at-risk.
Still, though, we keep on breaking our axles and wagon tongues. The rivers are too deep to ford, so we get stuck. Why do we keep spinning our wheels?
It’s not that our equipment is faulty, though it could be better. The mountain is the problem, but even it’s not broken — it’s doing just what it was designed to do. The mountain is rigged to keep us busy without ever letting us get to the top. Privilege protects itself this way.
Stand for Children has done impressive advocacy and organizing work, including successfully responding to parents in the community and working to save charter schools.
These are just a few among many other feathers in both organizations’ caps, among so much more good work being done by so many others.
Despite all the good work, the gaps persist.
We are going to achieve equitable outcomes with our students once our systems themselves are operating outside of systemic oppression. The foundation for that change is ensuring that our leadership and staff doing this work reflect the diversity of our community — that our schools, our districts and our non-profits are themselves built as an embodiment of equity and inclusiveness.
Teachers and district leadership in the state are disproportionately white. Both Stand and the Alliance have operated with predominantly white staffs under white leadership for many years. I myself am a white man writing about education.
We need people of all races and of all backgrounds advocating for our kids, and it’s really powerful to have people from privilege dedicate their lives to this and put everything into it. There is nothing inherently wrong, to be clear, with white people leading organizations, schools, districts, classrooms, or on any other part of this sphere.
But if you have a predominantly white team and board, you will have blind spots. If we don’t understand our blind spots, and if we’re not going beyond business as usual and process as usual to actually bring in more diversity, equity and inclusion, we won’t bring about meaningful change for our students.
I single out Stand and the Alliance only because of their current vacancies — not because they are any more culpable than the rest of us. They are doing great work with the best of intentions, as are so many people and organizations and schools. I only hope we can all continue to improve.
We need to address these blindspots as a broader community and ensure that we are building more diverse pools and pipelines for people of color. We need more perspectives on the nuances that are contributing to the opportunity gap and to come up with new and innovative solutions for closing it.
