The Expectations Project

Like many people around the country I’ve been reduced to tears watching coverage of this week’s devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma.  The pictures are heart wrenching.  The stories are chilling. Truly this is the stuff of nightmares.

Perhaps the most tragic images come from Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma.  An estimated 75 children, as of Monday evening, may have been crouched in the school when the brunt of the storm made its way over the campus.  It appears that several children lost their lives in their own school building.

And so we weep for the children whose all-too-short lives came to an end in those classrooms and hallways.  We collectively ache for the parents who will never again have the privilege of hugging their sweet little ones.  For those of us for whom faith is our foundation, we turn to our God and futilely try to make sense of it all.  As our nation watches and prays for our Oklahoma brothers and sisters, we struggle to find some hope.  Are there any sparks of humanity that can temporarily, and only slightly, diminish the cries of our pain?

And, thankfully, the supermen and superwomen emerge, as they often seem to.  It amazes me that we are given the privilege to witness something hopeful in the midst of overwhelming sorrow.  In the case of Plaza Towers, the teachers provide the hope we all so desperately need right now.   There are stories of more than one educator who literally threw their bodies on top of four or five little students. These teachers instinctively knew that the churning rubble and debris could end the lives of their young charges.  So they simply used their own bodies as a human shield.  These teachers were willing to take the brunt of the storm in order to protect their students.

What were they thinking in that exact moment? Did they weigh the costs of what they were about to do?  Or did they just act? It’s hard to know.  I only hope that I would have had the same courageous instincts when I was a classroom teacher.

We focus so much, as we must, on the impact teachers have on our children’s academic and intellectual progress.  That’s certainly right and appropriate, as that is a teacher’s primary responsibility.  But, like many of us, I know that I am guilty of getting lost in the academics and losing site of how much more our best teachers do.  They go far beyond simply educating our children.  They care for them, laugh with them, inspire them, support them, encourage them, and, yes, in some cases literally lay down their lives for them.

I will return to the complex, and often thorny, education reform discussions where we wrestle with the best way to increase student achievement and bring educational equality to all students.  But for today, I will remember the heroes that walk into our nation’s classrooms every Monday through Friday.  And I will pray for them.  I will thank God for them.  I am grateful for how they teach, guide, lead and protect our children – and my children – every single day.

Nicole Baker Fulgham is Founder and President of The Expectations Project, where her faith drives her daily to seek educational equity for all children. Nicole is also author of “Educating All God’s Children,” where she explores what Christians can – and should – do to improve public education for low-income kids.

As a Christian, I believe the Bible makes it clear that the Church – followers of Christ – are to spread His love in the world, both through sharing the Gospel with words and through our actions, helping to bring more of God’s Kingdom onto this earth. I believe we are called to do this through bringing Christ’s redemption to the broken individuals, systems, and structures all around us.

But this deeply held belief does not always play out easily (in fact, it rarely does) when it comes to real-life situations.

Take public schools, for example. My husband and I do not yet have kids, but we know they are a part of our not-too-distant future. And we have already had the following tough conversation a couple times – a conversation that I know many of you have also had with your significant other:

Living in a city with mostly poor-performing public schools – if we are still living here when our kids are school-age – will we send them to the schools both of us are working to reform? Or will we send them to private schools, even as we talk about equality and living amidst the brokenness of the world?

The answer may seem clear – on paper. But my husband is a teacher in one of the lowest-performing elementary schools in DC, which has allowed us both an inside look at our under-resourced schools and teachers, and has shown us how truly broken our city’s public education system is.

We both feel deeply called to help bring redemption to this brokenness, to help make sure all children in DC receive the same excellent education, to be present in our community, get to know those we are working for, and share in the struggles and triumphs.

But are we willing to do this at the expense of our own child’s education?

Is this what God is asking of us? To truly bring redemption to a broken person or broken situation, we do need to invest and live in it, to an extent. Will we be even more spurred on to reform our failing schools if our own children are attending them? Will we feel compelled to work even harder for justice for a disenfranchised child if he or she is our child’s best friend?

Or, are we not loving our own children the way we are called to if we knowingly send them to a school where they will receive less than what they deserve, when we have the chance to choose otherwise? Can we send our children to the type of school we are working to move other schools closer towards? Can we work to reform our public schools without sending our own children to them?

I don’t have a definitive “yes” or “no” for any of these questions. There are some Christians who would say yes, we must send our children to the broken schools we are called to invest in – that is part of investing in the brokenness. And there are others who would say no, we can work for redemption for these schools without risking our own children’s education.

What do you think? Is there a way you feel we as the Church are called to respond to this situation?

Blythe Scott is the Operations Director for The Expectations Project. Her Christian faith fuels her passion for justice and equality in public education.

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

In American politics – and especially coming off of the frenzied presidential election season – the faith community gets played by all sides. And almost no phrase is used to court or manipulate the faith community more than the phrase “pro-life.”

Over the past couple years, I’ve had several experiences that have caused me to reflect on what it means to be pro-life. I’ve seen that being truly pro-life does not mean simply advocating for the reversal of Roe v. Wade: I’ve come to believe that I cannot be comprehensively pro-life unless I also choose to continually advocate for the lives of those children after they are born.  I must ensure they will have the chance to live the full lives God desires for them. If we are to call ourselves pro-life, we must be pro-life in every area of our lives.

Yes, there are several verses in God’s Word where He speaks about knowing us in the womb (and that is a wonderful, miraculous thing). But there are also hundreds of verses that talk about God’s love for His children once we are outside the womb. God makes it very clear to us what it means to be pro-life by His standards:

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9)

So if we advocate for the voiceless in the womb, but when they are born to a mother who does not want them – or who is not equipped to love and provide for them the way God desires – and we are not there to advocate for them then, can we truly call ourselves pro-life, by God’s own standards?

God has called me into a situation this past year where I’ve learned more of what it looks like to live out my pro-life beliefs according to God’s standards. I’ve gotten to walk with a woman through the darkness that almost resulted in her terminating her pregnancy, I saw how it was God working through our relationship, and the community of support our church provided her, that led her to keep her baby. I’ve gotten to see God’s life-giving power begin to change her life – again, mostly through the community of people from our church taking the time to invest in her and love her. Just recently I got to hold her little baby in my arms, look into his face, and reflect on God’s amazing grace, lived out through a few truly pro-life relationships, that got him here. It was not simply saying we were pro-life that brought him to us. It was God’s love lived out in our lifestyles, in our willingness to enter into the tough, often exhausting relationship that has helped both mother and baby begin to enter into the full life God has for them.

And being pro-life does not stop here. This is just the beginning. It is through continuing to invest in her and her little boy, being present in their lives, advocating for them, supporting them, walking with them, teaching them, and learning from them, that I am able to truly call myself pro-life.

Which is why I firmly believe education is a pro-life issue. One of the most powerful and effective ways I can advocate for my friend is by helping to ensure that her children attend schools that give them the support and education that will help them break cycles of abuse, neglect, and poverty (the kind of poverty that causes children to have almost no quality of life, that makes abortion seem like the best option for a poor woman facing an unexpected pregnancy). Through receiving a quality education, through having teachers who invest in them, through having a school that meets their needs, my friend’s children will have the chance to live more of the full life God intended for them – and the full life my friend might have had growing up if she had had more education advocates.

I keep thinking about the schools she went to – what if there were programs in place or a couple teachers who had the time, training, or resources to invest in her – how different her life might have been. I believe that through our schools, we can provide what my friend needed when she was 12 and first introduced to the street life – we can provide that mentor, that teacher, that coach, that program that will catch others like her and give them a chance to live up to their God-given potential.

The Church is able to be pro-life in a way the rest of the world can’t. We are able to bring a deeper understanding of the value of the life of every child. We are also able to bring a deeper understanding of the true, full Life found in Christ, and the passion and commitment the knowledge of this Life brings to our work. We must not let ourselves be restricted to a narrow vision or what being pro-life looks like – rather, we must be present in our schools, and use our voices to advocate for the public education reform these kids and families desperately need. If we don’t, I do not think we can truly call ourselves pro-life.

Blythe Scott is the Operations Director for The Expectations Project. Her Christian faith fuels her passion for justice and equality in public education.

The God of the Bible makes it clear where His heart lies.

…Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. (Matthew 18:3-5)

You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror. (Psalm 10:17-18)

God loves children. He loves the downtrodden, the poor, and the oppressed. He deeply desires for them to know His love, as well as have access to the full lives He created all of us to live.

And He makes it clear that His intention is for us to help make sure this happens. As His followers, we are to advocate and defend.

In the United States, almost 15 million children (21% of all children) live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level – which is $22,350 a year for a family of four. And research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic expenses. Using this standard, 44% of children live in low-income families.  God’s call for us to love His children and defend the poor and the oppressed is as urgent as ever.

And a major way we can love and defend these children is through advocating for public education reform.

Our nation’s public education system is not just. In fact, in many cases it actively perpetuates injustice by keeping some children – mostly those from disenfranchised populations – in cycles of poverty and oppression.

Children of color and lower income families are much more likely to live in neighborhoods with low-performing public schools. Attending these schools makes it much more likely that these students will end up being behind grade level, dropping out of high school, committing a violent crime, going to prison, being a single parent, and ending up living in poverty in a very similar neighborhood to the one they grew up in – continuing the cycle of poverty and racial injustice they were born into.

Consider the following statistics:

• Nearly 23% of all young black men ages 16 to 24 who have dropped out of high school are in jail, prison, or a juvenile justice institution in America
• Male dropouts of all races were 47 times more likely to be incarcerated than their peers of a similar age who had graduated from a four-year college or university.
• More than half (54%) of the nation’s dropouts ages 16 to 24 were jobless on an average month during 2008.
• Nearly 37 of every 100 dropouts live in poor or near-poor families.

Academic inequity and failing public schools have an enormous impact on an individual’s quality of life. Advocating for public education reform is a clear way the Church can help prevent an enormous amount of the injustices God calls us to fight against. A more just education system – effective, high-performing schools, high curriculum standards, more quality teachers, and more after-school programs and parent support – helps prevent poverty, joblessness, homelessness, incarceration, single-parent homes, and much more.

We must demand the change these kids need, and act to help make it happen. Throughout history, the Church has been able to motivate, mobilize and lead change in a way that no other group has. We bring the passion and truth of Christ, His message that He can and is making all things new, and that we are called to be a part of it. The Church needs to bring this hope and vision to the public education reform movement, unifying and mobilizing people around this crucial issue that has the power to prevent so many other injustices.

Blythe Scott is the Operations Director for The Expectations Project. Her Christian faith fuels her passion for justice and equality in public education.