DEI and the D of E
I expect that if Jimmy Carter had foreseen the fraud, corruption and waste the Department of Education would cause, he would never have created it.
Since this department's establishment, public education has steadily declined. Look no further than our own Guilford County Schools, where our children are mired at miserably low levels of proficiency.
Maybe 1% of Education Department employees have ever helped one person learn to read or do math. If we were to dismantle it all today, put those resources into the states' and/or parents' hands for private or home schooling, maybe even assign every one of those employees as a personal tutor, there's no telling how much proficiency would rise.
I learned to read with a book, my brain, a parent and a teacher. Amazingly, that was before all the teacher training on divisive ideologies. I also successfully taught children -- from all backgrounds -- to read before these ideologies were thrust upon teachers and the education system.
There's no telling how many millions of dollars are spent on DEI just in the Guilford County schools. DEI personnel and concepts appear throughout GCS's materials and website.
But DEI never taught a child how to do anything positive. DEI proponents claim it improves the self-esteem of children "of color" and I call foul on that!
What can improve anyone's self-esteem is learning to do something well, not promoting DEI ideology.
Care for, love, teach and provide resources to a student, and you will see results.
Susan Tysinger
Greensboro
A greater say
Throughout the history of our country additional laws, regulations and unnecessary hurdles have been applied to people of color as they went about the business of living. From 1619 through slavery, emancipation, Jim Crow, desegregation, resegregation and up to the current day, Black people have experienced various racially restrictive covenants that ultimately resulted in the Greensboro of today.
Even as some were able to move to more affluent neighborhoods, most have stayed in areas that house predominantly persons of color. Investment in these neighborhoods has been poorly funded and politically driven. Many of these areas in southeast Greensboro have been afforded subpar housing, slumlords and fewer retail services than are found in more affluent living spaces.
Studies have shown that persons of color are driving the growth of our city yet their communities' requests are seldom heeded. Right now neighborhoods in southeast Greensboro are asking for investment, not charity. They want conditions addressed that can help attract adequate amounts of decent housing, grocery stores and other services. It is time that their requests are heard. Land the community wants left available for future grocery and retail is being sold to a developer for a parking lot.
It's time to let southeast Greensboro neighborhoods have a greater say in the development of their own communities than developers do.
Kathleen Rice
Greensboro
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