News & Commentary

While some may see my family’s history as solely an immigrant story, I know my family’s story is as American as any other immigrant’s story in our country. My mother came to the United States back in 1984, during the Guatemalan civil war. My dad crossed over the border to be with her in Los Angeles. They had two children, me and my brother. My parents worked hard to provide for us and our extended family, despite facing years of minimum wage jobs and discrimination. 

With their lives at stake, my family had to move quickly and didn’t even have time to say goodbye to their home, for fear that the military would soon arrive to their village. They left everything they knew behind to stay alive, to be together.  To the comunidad latina, family means everything. And we’d do anything for our family.  The Trump administration’s inhumane immigration policies, from denying asylum claims to Central American migrants to kids in cages to separating families, has unfairly targeted Latinx people. These policies not only psychologically and physically damage individuals, but they aim to dismantle the idea of unity and family. Something that is so central to our Latinx identity.

1. The Heart of the Matter: EquityPutting equity into practice means that state resources must support students and districts impacted by opportunity gaps, achievement lags, and chronic underfunding.Members of the Workgroup must weave equity into every stage of the decision-making process, and students must be at the center of each consideration. This means the state must properly count students so that the Workgroup can design the formula to correctly provide the additional resources that each district needs. Additionally, accountability for the ways the state supports its successful implementation and specific measures for the range of equity factors (i.e. teacher retention practices targeting diverse representation, etc.) is a must. 2. The Richest Counties Are Still Getting the Most Education FundingAccording to Department of Legislative Services (DLS) and the Kirwan Commission’s own analysis, Maryland has a regressive education funding formula. The Maryland Center for Economic Policy found that more than half of students of color in Maryland attend underfunded schools, while the same is true for only 8% of white students. Rich counties receive more education funding than counties with low wealth despite "wealth equalization” measures in the formula. The ability of wealthy districts to contribute more local dollars to their school systems, beyond what is required by st

By the Sanchez Family

During the height of the protests against the John Hopkins University private police force, many brave students and community members resisted peacefully on campus against a new force that represented a real, unaccountable threat, especially to students and community members of color.

Over 150 years ago, on what is now called Juneteenth, we celebrate the arrival of Major General Gordon Granger and his soldiers at Galveston, Texas, who finally brought news that the Civil War was over and enslaved Black people were free. Their freedom came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.