By Omar Lopez, DFER Policy Analyst
The singular focus in my life is clear: creating a world where every child has the opportunity to attend an excellent school, irrespective of income, race, background, immigration status, geography or connections. I am committing my entire life to pushing the ball forward on education reform. I am part of a tradition that goes back generations and will continue to thrive moving forward. This is a dynamic movement that is comprised of individuals and organizations that is going to completely re-write the script on the future of education.
I represent second generation education reform. The first generation of modern education reform, with its focus on improving schools throughout the entire nation by ameliorating achievement gaps, addressing disproportionate resource allocation and promoting high standards, is reaching its maturity. Emerging from this movement are second generation reformers. These are people who went to the charter schools they are advocating for, took online classes as young people and have grown up with the internet their entire lives. Second generation reformers are not limited by the confines of old paradigms. We are people who are well versed in the politics, culture and method of this struggle.
Second generation reformers love public education. We are champions for the Universal Declaration of Human rights, which states in Section 1 of Article 26, “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages;” As well as Section 3, which says, “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”
I have directly benefitted from people who believed in these values. My mother initiated this second generation reformer movement by stumbling upon a flyer in Williamsburg, Brooklyn advertising a new school by the name of Beginning with Children. The school embodied the second section of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, being a place where “education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Beginning with Children ran like a charter school a full eight years before there was a charter law in New York City.