The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.” For over a year now a diverse group of parents have been thinking and acting intensively and critically in developing a Family Engagement Policy for Albuquerque Public Schools.
This has entailed sharing our experiences in education with each other in dozens of one-on-one and small group meetings, organizing larger community forums, and much writing, reflection and editing.
We now have a cutting-edge policy that is based on the experiences of more than 400 family and community members and an ever-growing group of advocates called Families United for Education.
Schools can’t, nor should they, educate our children alone.
This Family Engagement Policy would require APS to give families a voice in decisions at the school and district levels, institutionalize equity across race and other demographic groups, provide safe and welcoming environments for all students and families, and strengthen relationships between schools and the communities they serve.
The policy has won the public endorsement of two board members and 22 local organizations but has been “on hold” by the Policy Committee of the APS board for the last three months. As King once said, quoting the 19th-century British politician William Gladstone, “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
We call upon the APS board to bring the policy to a vote at its board meeting in February.
Otherwise the board will be reproducing the same dynamics of marginalization, disrespect and unequal access that the policy is designed to address.
