When we closed out the Education Equity Forum just two short weeks ago, the EdTrust-West team huddled in the Marriott for one last Forum task – our appreciation circle. I expressed there, as I will here again, my immense gratitude for the team as a whole, and the team members who were heavily involved in the planning and execution of the event. It is no small feat to bring together over 500 advocates from across California (and beyond!). In continuing to reflect since the Forum ended this year, I’ve found myself feeling appreciative of a lot about the 5th occurrence of the Ed Equity Forum, especially as I’ve been fortunate enough to be at every one of them. 

First and foremost, I appreciate the advocates who took the time to be with us in Oakland. We all wear many hats in our lives – as my 3-year-old reminds me if I try to take a work call with her in the car – and our time is precious, so I thank those of you who attended. And I love what I saw from the hundreds of advocates there. I walked past countless conversations between impassioned advocates, connecting across organizations and education sectors. I felt the palpable excitement in the hugs between attendees and heard the joyful laughter at the photo booth during our Ed Equity Champion Awards reception and dinner. I am grateful folks were able to connect on both the work and as people because, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, our connections will sustain us in this work, especially as we face increased pushback against equity efforts. 

On that note, I also appreciate the resounding resolve to stand firm – and be even bolder – in the name of students. There are plenty of individuals and institutions who try to get in the way of doing right by students, and sometimes we, as advocates, get in our own way. Yet what I saw at the Forum and heard in sessions and on the main stage, is a fierce commitment to actualizing racial justice in education. Because what we want for our students, as Nikole Hannah-Jones reminded us at the Forum, is not just educational adequacy, but education abundance for low-income students of color and Multilingual learners. And to get there, it will take something I mentioned in my opening remarks – to put the rage back in courage. 

I also want to take a moment to thank the attendees for their flexibility and patience as we navigated some schedule changes on the final day of the Forum that allowed us to still hold sessions while also respecting and supporting the workers of the Marriott Oakland City Center in their labor action that day. It is not lost upon me that each and every time I was on stage and mentioned the hotel workers and our urging for hotel management to do right by them, those sentiments were met with applause. To know that the hundreds of us gathered together around educational equity were in solidarity with these workers demonstrates to me the power of our advocacy and partnership. 

Solidarity is precisely why we need more people standing with us in the fight for Black, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Native American, low-income, and Multilingual learner students. In that sentiment, I was struck by this powerful message from Dr. Joely Proudfit on the Education as a Civil Right panel:

“We gotta carry everyone forward, because together, unidos, united, we are stronger, and we are gonna make it. And you know what, I don’t want to do this without you. We are constantly put on reservations. “Oh the Indians, they just want to be over there.” No, we want to be seen, we want people to respect our rights, we don’t want to be further isolated. It’s easier to make us the enemy. It’s easier to make us marginalized than to say “How can we serve you?” And critical to that is allowing us to speak for ourselves.” 

– Dr. Joely Proudfit (Luiseño/Payómkawichum, Tongva), Chair of the American Indian Studies Department and Director of the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center at CSU San Marcos

In that vein, and as I mentioned at the Forum, we’re launching a new effort to bring more people “into the tent”, so to speak, to increase the numbers of Californians who demand that the state, our schools, and colleges do right by these students. One of our first steps is to listen and learn through community conversations around the state. But we aren’t popping in and out of these communities. We want to build a space for connecting the conversations already happening locally to the broader network of education advocacy – and we need your help. If you have thoughts on host locations, organizations we should connect with, or ideas in general about these conversations, we want to hear from you here. 

You’ll hear more about our work to galvanize folks in the coming weeks and months. For now, I head out to the second part of my parental leave with a deep sense of gratitude for all that happened at the Forum, and an excited sense of anticipation to see what comes next from the connections that were made. 

Onward.