The Fight for Public Education

Mar 15, 2025

I learned early on that one of the most important things a teacher can do is abandon the lesson plan and respond to current events. Whether it’s major national news, dramatic weather, a devastating local incident, or just a tangent-prompting question from a student, skilled teachers grab those teachable moments and refuse to let go. The next page in the curriculum guide can almost always wait until tomorrow if there’s a chance to engage the class in dialogue or analysis that connects to real life in an impossible-to-manufacture way.

I know we’re overdue for a book club post and there are few things more important than bringing SLPS back under good governance and ethical leadership, but we’ll have to come back to it another day.

On Tuesday night, the faculty and staff of Nahed Chapman New American Academy led an absolute masterclass in civic leadership in front of the entire City. I cannot stop thinking about it. I’ve spent hundreds, maybe even thousands of hours, in Room 108 at Central Office, but I cannot remember a time when I’ve been so in awe, so impressed, so moved.

The teachers did what all good teachers do. They seized the moment and engaged their learning community in an authentic learning experience. And it’s one I will never forget.

To recap what happened last week:

Last Friday, all staff had to attend one of two meetings led by the superintendent. She presented about her vision for the district then took questions/comments from attendees. At the Roosevelt meeting, some staff members questioned the changes to the NCNAA program. Some staff who walked out in opposition were called into disciplinary hearings.

The March 11 board meeting agenda included a presentation (page 21) about the NCNAA program changes. At least twenty staff members were in attendance. Throughout the presentation, staff reacted in real time as they learned seemingly previously unknown details such as beginning to transition students out of the program after the return from spring break. Board members asked lots of questions and received responses from administration that lacked specifics or were based on cherry picked data. (You can view the administration’s presentation, board member questions/discussion, and faculty and staff public comments on the district’s YouTube channel.) Despite this, the board voted 4-1 (Hubbard was the lone no, Cousins and Vowell were absent) to enact the administrative recommendations.

The staff endured the entire meeting in the stuffy, overly hot room, not taking the mic until after 9pm. Calmly and methodically but full of emotion, they shared their concerns about the approved changes to the program.

We talk a lot about the fight for public education in this City. We travel to Jeff City to fight back against bad legislation and advocate for our schools. But what happened on Tuesday night was the fight for public education in its purest, most local form. Teachers stood before the power holders and critiqued their decision, questioned their rationale. They told stories about students who enrolled in school after experiencing the unthinkable and wiped tears from their eyes as they listened to colleagues describe how much the program meant to the children, their families, and the entire city really. And isn’t this what we really mean when we say that public education is a public good? Public education is not some commodity to be traded to the highest bidder but is instead a civic system open freely to all especially those who are the most vulnerable and in need of support.

I don’t pretend to know the best practices for newcomer programs. I’m no expert on ESOL or immigration policies. I can’t imagine teaching a child with a backpack full of traumatic experiences on their very first day of school ever in a brand new country. But you know who I trust to know those things? The teachers who wake up and do it every single day.

I don’t know what the program structure should look like or if the board should ultimately have approved the changes. However, it is clear that the process to arrive at this decision was deeply flawed at best. Any time teachers or students or parents are showing up in droves to speak at the end of a three hour long board meeting it is clear the policy-making process has excluded them at every other stage.

It was such a privilege to be in the same room as the faculty and staff of NCNAA as they fully leveraged their democratic power to advance the democratic ideals of our most valued democratic public institution - St. Louis Public Schools.

I could go on and on about this being an example of democracy in action, but your time would be much better spent learning from these brave teachers directly. If we are to receive the full benefit of having a democratically elected school board, then we have to do our part too!

Please view the presentation, discussion, and NCNAA public comments and read the local news coverage.

St. Louis school for immigrant and refugee students nearly doubles in size (Post-Dispatch, Bernhard)
Teachers of new immigrants at St. Louis Public Schools decry changes shortening the program (Post-Dispatch, Bernhard)
Nahed Chapman staff defends program after SLPS officials approve changes (STLPR, Ahmad)

A big thank you so much to the reporters and photographers who covered the meeting with such fidelity!

You may also be interested in reading more generally about St. Louis-area immigration. It’s fascinating to me that this decision was made in the very same week we heard about the positive impacts immigration has had on our city’s population.

St. Louis had best population growth in years. Trump immigration crackdown may kill momentum (Post-Dispatch, Barker)
They Had an Answer to Their City’s Decline. Then Came the Immigration Crackdown (New York Times, DePillis)

Comments on this post are open to everyone. Please use this space to leave a note of encouragement or gratitude to the NCNAA team.

The Fight for Public Education

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