Georgia’s Educational Neglect

Georgia’s Educational Neglect

I worked as a substitute teacher in a Newton, Massachusetts middle school a few months ago. I taught a wide range of kids, including some with behavior-related disabilities. A few of these children needed in-class aides and extra academic support, but they met their...
Summer Spells Hunger for Kids in Small American Towns

Summer Spells Hunger for Kids in Small American Towns

Metropolis, Illinois, population 6,465, isn’t much of a metropolis. But when Reverend Orlando McReynolds moved to that small town on the Kentucky border two years ago to become the pastor at the First Missionary Life Center, he found the same thing he left behind in...
I Won the Housing Lottery

I Won the Housing Lottery

I grew up in an affluent corner of Loudoun County, Virginia, where the median household income is nearly $120,000. In September, I’ll be a junior at Harvard University. Coming from the richest county in the United States, where I graduated from a competitive magnet...
Throwing Public Education under the Bus

Throwing Public Education under the Bus

Public education used to be, you know, public — an essential societal investment for the betterment of all, paid for by all through school taxes. In addition to privatization schemes to turn education over to corporate profiteers, public schools themselves have...
What’s the End Game?

What’s the End Game?

I was researching a billionaire who made a fortune in the pomegranate business when I came across an old New Yorker article that opened a window into her life. Every minute of her day is booked in a life devoted to the constant quest for more money. It made me wonder:...