While I am proud of my work in public education, I came to eschew questions about my non-campaign professional life from those within the Sanders campaign because of the disapproving reactions I often received. Nearly 500 children are on the waiting list. We spent the same dollars per child as district schools but engaged in practices not typically found in district schools, including a school day from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm for most students, home visits, mandatory uniforms, picking kids up if they missed a bus, and hiring and firing based on teacher performance.Īlma del Mar is now a high-performing school offering impoverished children from a high-needs community an education comparable to that of their peers in affluent neighborhoods.
Many such schools were charter schools. Eager to learn more, I joined the founding leadership team of Alma del Mar Charter School in New Bedford. I had read of “90-90-90” schools - in which 90 percent of children are low-income, 90 percent are black or Hispanic, and 90 percent achieve grade-level academic standards. After nine to 13 years in the Boston public schools, these young people had abandoned their “what I want to do when I grow up” ambitions and succumbed to panhandling. Despite their daunting struggles, nearly all caregivers expressed a common yearning for their children: a better life.Īs director of StandUp for Kids – Boston, I worked with homeless young adults who were once just like the toddlers of Early Head Start. Anyone meeting the bright and curious children there without context would forecast futures of great potential. My explorations first took me to an Early Head Start program in Dorchester.
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