Nearly 100 parents came to the Givens Recreation Center in Austin recently for a membership drive meeting sponsored by the Black Alliance for Educational Options. Organizers said the purpose of the meeting was to empower Black parents to consider all education choices available to their children.

The Rev. Frank Garrett, Jr., radio talk show host and community leader, sounded a theme that was repeated throughout the night: “We are not anti-public schools. We are anti-letting our children fall through the cracks.”  “I see a need here for a new enthusiasm for what is going on in our schools, ”said Garrett. BAEO creates that opportunity.” Garrett said that BAEO is significant because it educates parents on the broad spectrum of educational choices available too them.
Garrett criticized school systems that, through disciplinary and other measures, single out young Black males in a prelude to the correctional system. “The prison system doesn’t rehabilitate. It recycles,” he said.

One of the panelists, Dr. Nannette Glenn, principal of the McCullough Academy of Excellence and a former administrator at the Texas Education Agency, offered a variation of that theme.
“As a former compliance monitor for TEA, I saw too many Black boys in special education. Some teachers don’t know how to teach our kids,” she concluded. Glenn said her school has seen significant improvements in its second year of TAAS testing. She said most students at her East Austin charter school scored at the 78th percentile and above on the state-mandated test.
Other panelists provided information and offered their viewpoints as parents of children in the traditional public school setting and those who were home-schooled. There was also a representative from the new KIPP Academy in Austin and a spokesperson for a private voucher organization, the Austin CEO Foundation. One parent who said he was new to Austin asked if the community has done enough to try and work with the Austin school district. Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening, Stella Roland, vice-president of the Eastside Social Action Committee, explained, “We have sat down and talked with AISD until we were blue in the face. ESAC has moved to another level by joining BAEO.”

A special guest introduced at the meeting was the Rev. Raymond Bryant of Dallas. Bryant is president of BAEO in Dallas and treasurer of the national organization. Bryant encouraged participants who want choice in schools to vote for candidates who support it. Bryant also said that BAEO is planning to host national symposiums on freedom in education in Austin and Dallas next year.