Social justice is the social justice issue of our time

This NYTimes story has been making the rounds: "For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall." It follows three girls from Galveston who took all the right steps in high school to pull themselves out of their dismal surroundings (seriously, I've been to Galveston; the ocean water gives you a rash) and make it to college, only to flounder under the burden of navigating (and paying for) the system.

Go read it and then come back here.

Thanks for coming back. This sets the scene for a discussion I've been wanting to start with you for a while, blog.

My school is a Title 1 school. It's also a very good school. It's a college-focused charter with highly sought-after spots in the open enrollment lottery. We are certainly not perfect, but we are not the failing urban school that you hear horror stories about. 

Yet schools like mine are still not succeeding in their mission. Two thirds of KIPP (not my school, but similar model) kids don't make it through college.

When I first decided I wanted to work in education, I would have told you with 100% confidence: Education is the social justice issue of our time. Education is the solution to poverty. Education is the great equalizer. Then I would have rattled off several statistics about how education is the leading determiner of X, Y, and Z life outcomes. I was a sociology major!

"Education is the social justice issue of our time" is a popular refrain among progressive, young, mission-driven teachers like myself. What's interesting is it's also a popular refrain among super conservative old politicians. That makes sense, sort of. Equality of opportunity is the bedrock value of our nation, so everyone besides, like, the KKK, is pretty on-board with the idea that all citizens should have access to a solid education.

I hate to create a rift in the one single area where we might find bipartisan consensus in 21st century America, but when I find myself agreeing strongly with Newt Gingrich, I take that as a little flag that I have some stuff to work out philosophically.

Here is a statement Newt Gingrich made last year in reference to his desire to cut entitlement programs like food stamps: "I'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job and learn some day to own the job."

If education is THE cause of poverty, Newt is right on. Poor people just need to learn things! All we have to do is educate people better, and we'll have a perfectly equal (or, perfectly meritocratic... more on this later) society. Never mind any of those other little issues, like housing, access to healthcare, the minimum wage, unfair working conditions, the incarceration rate of black men, etc. And never mind the Bush tax cuts. Especially never mind the Bush tax cuts.

Would equality of education actually put every American on equal footing? Not at all. Would it make people who were born into privileged positions feel even more entitled to be there, and less empathetic, operating under the myth that every American started off in the same position, so they must have just worked harder, been smarter, etc.? This is the upshot of "equality of opportunity."

For the sake of argument, let's pretend that my school is literally perfect. Let's say we know what it means to give children a maximally perfect education, and we're doing it.

Does that mean F. will recover from the hacking cough she has had for two months because no one is taking her to the doctor?

Does that mean G. will be able to afford the glasses she needs?

Does that mean P. will no longer be homeless?

Does that mean A's father will be with him, as opposed to in prison?

Does that mean tiny S. will stop shivering through the whole school day because she doesn't have a sweater?

(This is just a sampling of the real obstacles my students face, though please note that we did get S. a sweater.)

Charter schools like KIPP and my own school are often called "No Excuses." The idea is that they don't make excuses for student failure. (The assumption here, which we can debate another time, is that traditional district schools are sitting around saying "you want us to educate them?! But they're poor!" -- which is obviously not what I'm advocating either). Conservative politicians love "No Excuses." Again, it makes sense. If poverty isn't an excuse for substandard education, then you don't even have to address poverty.

Here's my new version of no excuses: Poverty is not an excuse for substandard education. Nor is substandard education an excuse for poverty. Let's actually stop making excuses.

So, progressive teachers and friends of progressive teachers, this is my point: Education is really, really, really important. Is is part of the solution to poverty. A big part. But every time we reduce the complicated issues of poverty and inequality to one root cause, be it education or any other issue, we are hurting our mission. If our goal is to create a society where everyone can lead a life of dignity, maintain a middle-class lifestyle, be their best self, etc., etc., we need to stop saying that education is the social justice issue of our time. Social justice is the social justice issue of our time.