One of the nation’s leading educational reform authorities will speak Wednesday in Charlotte on options for parents regarding choice in their children’s education.
Florida State Board of Education Vice Chair and Greater Miami Urban League President T. Willard Fair will be the featured speaker on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at noon at an N.C. Education Alliance luncheon at the Urban League of the Central Carolinas.
“I have seen the days when self-righteous keepers of the constitution stood at public schoolhouse doors to prevent Black American children from entering,” Fair said. “Today I see folks standing at the schoolhouse doors to prevent the children from leaving. But now it is not just the Black children; it is any child whose parents cannot afford to move their home to the neighborhood of a better public school, or move their child into a private school.”
Fair has dedicated his professional career to the educational needs of urban children. He co-founded, with Gov. Jeb Bush, the Liberty Center Charter School, the first charter school organized in the State of Florida.
“There’s nothing more important to us in terms of our civil rights than to be able to have a proper education,” Fair said.
At the luncheon, he will discuss more about what the state of North Carolina can do to better meet the needs of lower performing students, including charter schools and other parental choice options.
“The children don’t exist for the schools. The schools exist for the children. And if the children are not learning, our first duty is to help them,” Fair said.
The Urban League of the Central Carolinas is located at 740 West Fifth Street in Charlotte. The fee is $10 and box lunches will be served.
For more information on T. Willard Fair’s appearance for the NC Education Alliance on Wednesday Oct. 26, please call NCEA director Lindalyn Kakadelis at 704-231-9767 or email her at [email protected].