Stories from the field: Teaching experience highlights inequality in Florida school system
An SPLC legal intern working to end Florida’s race-based academic goals helps a class of 11th-graders express their feelings about an education system that holds them to a lower standard.
My Monday morning routine begins as a group of rambunctious 11th-graders shuffle into their desks at one of Miami’s largest high schools. The walls of my classroom are sprinkled with pictures of Thurgood Marshall, President Obama and Julian Bond that look on as I teach these students about the law.
As the students in this predominately African-American school shake off the weekend’s cobwebs, they notice a stranger.
“Good morning,” I say. “Today, we are joined by Stephanie Langer. She’s your attorney.”
“Our attorney?” a student named Jaquan asks.
“Well, she represents all of you and more than a million other students of color in Florida,” I respond.
Sixty years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school segregation, the SPLC is challenging state educational policies reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. Last year, the state set lower academic goals for children of color based upon nothing other than race. The SPLC responded by filing a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Justice Department on behalf of black and Latino students.
As the SPLC lawyer spoke to my class, what started out as a typical Monday morning turned into an unforgettable event that empowered these students to share their stories of Florida’s schools.
“If they want us to succeed,” said Jaquan, “get us new books! Our history books stop at Bill Clinton, and we still have to share them!”
Their stories echoed the accounts of students interviewed by SPLC advocates before the complaint was filed and what I have personally seen in the classroom. As an SPLC intern, I remember one 11-year-old who said that book bags are unnecessary because the students are not allowed to take textbooks home anyway.
I’ve taught in three states, and the inequity I have witnessed in Florida is unparalleled. After-school programs are scarce. Students have told the SPLC they receive physical education classes only at every other grade level. Arts and music instruction is nonexistent. Electives are focused on remediation, not growth. There is no creative avenue for these students to explore who they are or what they want to be in life.
After Stephanie’s visit, I challenged my students to write “Dear Legislator” essays to express how the race-based policy made them feel. I was greeted by a stack of essays the next time the class met.
The SPLC partnered with 10 organizations and the University of Miami for an event that allowed the students to share their stories. Michelle Llosa, an SPLC advocate, kicked off the event by welcoming more than 100 attendees. She offered some stark figures about the state’s education system.
“Florida ranks 48th in the country in per-pupil spending,” she said. “Teachers here make $10,000 less than the national average. Yet we spend millions arresting more students than any other state.”
In a panel discussion that followed, Jaquan, my most opinionated student, discussed how students strive to succeed for themselves and for their families. “I’m just a student trying to make it so I can get my mama a house,” he said.
Afterward, high school students read their “Dear Legislators” essays to an attentive audience. “How could you only expect 74 percent of blacks to pass [a] standardized test in comparison to 85 percent of whites?” one student wrote.
Despite the lower achievement expected of her, she still passed her standardized test – a test she took the week after her best friend, Trayvon Martin, was shot and killed. She also lamented the steady stream of messages sent to children of color that they are not as valuable as others. It was not lost on her that these messages are sent as lawmakers set them up for failure with unequal resources.
Teaching at the school Trayvon once attended is a constant reminder of how Florida discriminates against its minority youth. Sixty years after the Brown v. Board decision, we cannot sit back and allow a race-based educational policy to govern Florida education. Witnessing the inequalities and hearing students speak out against them underscores the importance of standing up for these children.
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Amir Whitaker is a former SPLC legal intern and recent law school graduate.
