Opinion: Nashville has important decisions to make about the future of public schools

This article was originally published in The Tennessean.

Tanaka Vercher
Guest Columnist

While kids across the city are spending time at summer camps, family vacations, and neighborhood pools, it’s time for us, the grown ups in their lives, to focus on their schools.

How should the district prioritize resources this fall? How will students recover academically and emotionally after living through multiple years impacted by a global pandemic? Most importantly, how can we keep our students safe while they’re in our school buildings?

The best way to have a voice in what happens in our kids’ schools is to step up and vote in our local school board elections this August.

Elected school board members decide budget priorities and set policies that impact all students, and now is the time to get informed and get ready to vote.

Even-numbered board seats (2, 4, 6, and 8) are on the ballot in August. Before we had Nashville’s first-ever partisan primary race for school board candidates back in May, district lines were redrawn by the city, so make sure to check which district you’re in.

Mark your calendar for June 28 forum and other key dates

I lead a nonprofit organization called Opportunity Nashville, which focuses exclusively on advocating for educational equity. We do this by promoting public conversation, democratic participation, and elected representation.

We are working hard to make sure families, who are impacted by the school board’s decisions the most, have their voices heard, are informed about their options, and remain actively engaged.

This spring, we hosted a series of school board candidate listening sessions so voters and families could discuss their priorities for Nashville’s schools with candidates. And just prior to the voter registration deadline next month, we will continue that conversation through a candidate forum on June 28, hosted by David Plazas, director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network in Tennessee.

Partnering with us on this event are some familiar community organizations you may already know: Conexión Américas, CivicTN, Urban League of Middle Tennessee, Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH), and The Tennessean.

Dates to Remember

• June 28: School Board Candidate Forum, 6-7:30 p.m., at Xenote in Plaza Mariachi, 3955 Nolensville Pike, Nashville, 37211

• July 5: Voter registration deadline

• July 15-30: Early voting

• Aug 4: Election Day

Education is Nashville's most pervasive social justice issue

We are doing this work because Nashville has a thriving, diverse economy, full of opportunities. But those opportunities are out of reach for too many of our local students who aren’t adequately prepared to succeed in college or career after high school.

Access to a high-quality education is Nashville’s most pervasive social justice issue. For decades, access to a high-quality public school in Nashville has largely been determined by a family’s ZIP code. Our city must focus on ending the systemic inequities that have existed in our public schools, so all students are provided the opportunity to succeed in life.

In fact, only one in three Metro Nashville Public Schools students are considered by the state to be a “Ready Graduate,” meaning they have a 21 on the ACT or they’ve completed coursework that will prepare them to go directly into the workforce.

It is an injustice and an embarrassment that less than one-third of our youth are well positioned for success after high school. The percentage is even smaller for students of color (21%) and students who are economically disadvantaged (18.9%). Nashville is growing, but we’re still a small enough city that we can fix this, if we make it a priority.

The power to make positive change in our school system ultimately sits with our elected school board. But it takes the entire community getting involved to create the vision of what we want our schools to look like and elect the candidates who are committed to making change. Let’s get to work, Nashville.

Tanaka Vercher, a two-term Metro Council Member serving Antioch’s District 28 and a veteran of the U.S. Navy, is the executive director of Opportunity Nashville. The local nonprofit advocacy organization is focused on improving educational equity in Nashville so that all students are provided the opportunity to succeed in life.