by Alvin Buyinza

Not gonna lie: writing about how Black children navigate the K-12 education system, and the obstacles they face, can be depressing.

As Word In Black’s education reporter, I am often tasked with reading studies and reports about how and why Black students fall behind their white peers. It’s often bleak stuff: racial biases that block Black kids from taking advanced math classes; federal cuts to Title I funding for schools serving low-income kids; unfair disparities in punishment for Black students; the post-pandemic absenteeism crisis.

The list of headwinds Black grade-school students must have to overcome to earn a high school diploma seems never-ending. And that’s without talking about President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the Department of Education.

Yet there a

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