Here in the City of Saginaw, how are you responding to the national shortage of K-12 teachers? Superintendent Ramont Roberts faced this question during a Men of Bethel AME summit on race disparities and challenges in education.
To answer the inquiry, he needed to look no farther than his colleagues on an all-star panel assembled by Bethel Men’s M.T. Thompson Jr., retired county judge.
Roberts is working with Michael Gavin and George Grant, the new presidents of Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University, on a “Grow Your Own” effort to find candidates first within the district’s employee ranks, and beyond within the local populus. Some may require more full semesters of study, but some already have achieved bachelor degrees and need only teaching certificates. During the first-year startup, 50 prospects are receiving support that ranges from financial incentives to mentorships, so that Saginaw may look within to address the shortage, instead of relying so much on outside recruitment.
At the same time, Pamela Pugh pushes for state funding and leadership as president of the Michigan K-12 Board of Education and Gwendolyn Thompson-McMillon, the judge’s sister, is an Oakland University literacy professor and author who organizes elementary-level volunteer tutors through “I Read, I Lead, I Succeed.”
The quintet’s common theme was that a team approach always is essential, no matter what the obstacles and barriers, intentional or institutional.
At the same time, the audience of nearly 200 included other local education icons, from Saginaw STEM founder Dante Davis to Kermit Diggs, who was ahead of her time when she emphasized science starting more than 40 years ago in her classroom at Morley Elementary. Men of Bethel Chairman Ralph Martin also leads the Saginaw Library Commission and the Saginaw African Cultural Festival.
Bethel’s retired pastor, P. David Saunders, concluded the two-hour think tank by reflecting on all he had learned and the information he had gained.
“It can’t just stay here, if we really wish to see a change,” Pastor Saunders said, summarizing a need for outreach.
Judge Thompson said the first followup steps will be for individuals to carry out improvements and reforms within their own bailiwicks, and then for participants to reassemble and evaluate actions that are taken.
Gavin and Grant agreed that their top overall aim is to boost African American enrollment at Delta, now 11 percent, and at SVSU, currently 8 percent. Both exceed MSU’s 7 percent and U-M’s 4 percent, but still fall short of Saginaw County’s 19 percent black population headcount.
Saginaw Valley State, said Grant, now offers free tuition within the Great Lakes Bay region to students from households in the income range of $70,000 or lower, with options found at go.svsu.edu. Similar tuition-free opportunities are in place for Delta, delta.edu.
Don’t forget history
Men of Bethel emphasized an agenda for the future and what Grant described as a “what works” priority on approaches with track records of success, but history was in focus.
Professor McMillon described growing up near Houghton School and being part of one of the first federal Head Start preschool classes and then the city’s schools’ Project BRITE. This was a positive startup during the early and middle 1960s, but then came systemic demolition to clear a path for Interstate 675, which joined the northeast railroad yard in destructively chopping the community into small enclaves. Her husband, Rev. Dr. Vincent D. McMillon, now is pastor of St. Paul Baptist on Fifteenth Street, a few blocks from her childhood home, which immediately borders the business loop.
Roberts also was direct, asserting that U.S. public education at the start was designed by capitalists into layers that favor advanced curricula for elite wealthy families and friends, aiming to restrict options for the working class in order to maintain their labor pool.
Nowadays, some of the same elites push to banish books that don’t match their personal viewpoints on ethnic equity and justice.
“Therefore, we need to disrupt a system that is designed to protect those capitalist interests,” the superintendent summarized. “We have to be careful that we do not perpetuate the class system.”
For her part, McMillon quoted Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist viewed as radical for his time: “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
To learn more about Men of Bethel and/or enlist in the Education Summit action plan, including to volunteer as a tutor or a mentor, contact Judge Thompson at malikthompson0513@gmail.com or Ralph Martin, ralmart4@aol.com.
