Every Child is No Longer Welcome in Our Public Schools
Anyone who believes "Everyone Is Welcome" in public schools is ostracized because of a larger plan to keep us separated by our differences. It's time to reject that premise and unite.
Our U.S. public education system was supposed to be the last bastion of belonging. Every child — regardless of who their parents are, where they come from, or how much money they have — was welcome to learn, to thrive, and to contribute back to our “great” nation.
But this is no longer the case. Our public access laws — once a democratic exemplar to the world, allowing entry to homeless and undocumented students alike — are being eroded before our eyes. The culture war has taken full hold of our schools, pushing them down a premeditated path where education is privatized and human difference is unwelcome.
We’ve seen this play out for decades. Art has gotten defunded while standardized testing has become a 30 BN industry. Who needs creativity if you’re a deliver driver for Amazon? And that’s what you can look forward to if you are a citizen.
Here in Florida, I hear almost daily of immigration officers showing up at schools to intimidate, question, and even detain. In response, students — especially immigrant and undocumented youth — are staying home out of fear. This is not hypothetical. It is happening. Now.
Everyone is NOT welcome.
And though many teachers and school leaders are doing all they can — putting themselves on the line to protect students and even denying officers entry — they also know their actions are only temporary stopgaps to a much deeper and growing threat.
Educators are afraid and they are exhausted. One of my graduate students, a Black female school principal relentless in her pursuit of excellence, finally cried in our group seminar after holding it together all day for her staff and students.
The goal has always been to keep the masses divided so we cannot unite against the special interests tearing our democracy apart. Keeping everyone undereducated pairs nicely with such a plan because then we will never realize our true power.
What’s at stake in these instances isn’t just the health of our public school system. It’s the health of our entire democracy. If schools are no longer places where all children belong — regardless of race, class, status, or citizenship — then where will they belong?
Who will make them feel part of a community?
Because as our current economic crash makes painfully clear, it won’t be the wealthiest among us. The wealthy will only watch the back of their shareholders.
As young people exhibit the worst mental health outcomes in history — with violence, addiction, and suicide rates all up — the solution is not to ideologically conform them into a homogenous mass. No, the idea has and should always be to uplift every single one of them. The solution to school shootings is in promoting belonging.
Schools are our only institution for turning around this social train wreck. That’s also exactly why they are under fire.
We must fiercely protect them - and not just let the educators fend for themselves as we have for so long.
Regular people can and must make a difference.
Show up to school board meetings. Support teachers. Ask your local schools what they need — then help meet those needs. Vote for leaders who believe in inclusive public education. It starts small, but it matters. Because when we fight for our schools, we fight for each other.
Not just the buildings, but the ideals they represent — inclusion, equity, and the promise of opportunity for all. If we lose that, we don’t just lose the heart of public education. We lose one of the last remaining safety nets we have left in this deeply polarized nation.
We are on the precipice. Schools must remain the last place where all children belong — or we risk becoming a country where no one truly does.