Vol 2 Issue 1-From the Editor

Setting new priorities for public education Antwan Jefferson, PhD

Welcome to our first issue of 2021.

• Post-riots at the US Capitol
• Post-2020 election
• Post and During the announced departures of several local school district leaders
• During a reality-altering global pandemic that continues to hit closer and closer to home for many of us
• During various shifting configurations of remote and in-person teaching and learning
• During the 2nd impeachment trial of a US President, the first in history

Every time we work on producing this Journal for you, I am reminded how important it is to see things as they are, especially when they are not the way we want them to be, the way our children, families, educators and broader community deserve them to be. And not the way that one person or group tries to convince us is the only way. This is why we do this work. This issue is special, and I think that you’ll get a sense of what’s special as you read the main article from Allan Tellis, our Chief Writer, who captures the tensions and opportunities ahead for public education in the region. I think that you’ll also see what’s even more special as you read from:

• A School Leader, who’s also an educator, who’s also a founding principal, and also a Doctoral Candidate, and who writes as all of these.
• A Doctoral Candidate, who’s also an activist, and a mother, and an educator, and who writes as all of these.
• A High School student, who’s also an organizer, and who’s helping to lead education and social systems change, and who writes as all of these.
• A Social Worker, who’s also a PhD, and a mother and grandmother, and an Educational Equity expert, and who writes as a member of the community, because she’s all of these.

Our DJEC team is committed to acknowledging that many things can be true simultaneously, just as each of us is not only one demographic descriptor. We (me, you, and everyone else) are all many different things, and these differences are what should unite us, more than what we have in common. There is not one reality, and no one has to win. We all need to win. I hope that this issue encourages you to be all that you are, and to allow others to be all that they are. I also hope it encourages you to see public education for all that it is.

Thank you for reading.